Crystalline Disturbance
by Lazy to Write
Summary: He's here to look for help, not offer it. Normally people wouldn't so readily help a complete stranger when they already had their hands full. But then Lloyd was never one to abandon those in need, though he didn't expect to be involved in yet another world saving journey just after he arrived here.
1. Wrong Destination

***IMPORTANT* **- This is a sequel to Fonic Interruption. FI is about the pre-game universe of TOA with Kratos in it, major changes to the game events occurred in that fic. But if you don't want to read it and just want to jump to the part where the actual game event starts, I've written down a few key points that you needed to know to understand this fic in the A/N after the prologue (the prologue itself doesn't have any relation to FI). Turn back now if you want to read Fonic Interruption and don't want spoilers!

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

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**Prologue: Wrong Destination**

Darkness. That's the only thing he saw as he looked around. Everywhere he looked was covered in the colour of plain black. Nothing above him but darkness, and even though he knew he was standing on something, he couldn't see anything except darkness underneath him, not even his own feet. Normally one would panic when they couldn't even see their own body parts, but he didn't think it was a problem or just didn't care. He didn't know where he was nor did he want to know. His mind felt sluggish and all he wanted to do at the current moment was to run away from it all.

_Wait? What was I running from?_ He tried to come up with an answer to that but quickly dismissed any rational thought that dared invade his mind and tore him away from the calmness he was feeling just by staying where he was, within the total darkness and without anything to worry about.

He wanted to sleep and closed his eyes, but it didn't matter whether his eyes were closed or not, the scenery he 'saw' was the same either way. Something in the back of his mind also supplied that he couldn't sleep even if he wanted to but he also waved away that voice. He just wanted to get away from everything an-

_Wake up!_

He snapped his eyes wide open at the voice. It sounded familiar but he couldn't place it. The voice disappeared leaving silence behind and he started to close his eyes again when he heard the call for him to wake up again, though this time it was another familiar voice that called to him. He didn't know what he was looking for as he turned his head around in the total darkness. He tried but failed to seek out the source of the voices.

_Wake up!_

There it was again, and with another different voice from the first two. He tried to figure out which direction it came and-

_Wake up!_

He turned around again and before he could even register what was happening, he heard many different voices telling him to wake up at the same time. All of the voices carried the same feeling of urgency, but among them all, one sounded the most desperate to him and he started running towards that direction. He wanted to make the voice stop, but at the same time he couldn't just ignore the urgency in them. He felt he was getting closer and closer to the origin of that desperate voice that somehow made his heart clench uncomfortably the most. He stretched out his arm, wanting to reach the invisible source of voice, and-

He opened his eyes and bolted up from the ground he was lying on. His arm still stretched forward in front of him with his palm opened. He was panting harshly when he pulled back his arm and looked at the palm of his own hand. He stared at it with a dumbfounded expression and tried to figure out what happened to him.

He gasped as memories started flashing through his mind. Happy memories that made him eager to continue his life by his family and friends' side, painful memories that shaped him into the person he was today, sad memories that made him want to cry but he still kept it close to his heart as they were also precious to him. Then came the scene of the most recent happenings that led to his current situation, he finally remembered what he was doing here and why.

He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply and let out a shaky breath. He opened his eyes again and let his hand fell back down to his side as he, with dread, took in the forest he woke up in. He started shaking his head as he took in the peaceful and calm environment surrounding him and very slowly raised his head to the sky. He looked at the dark blue sky above him that was laced with countless stars and also the round full moon in the middle of it telling him that it was night time, and that everything was _wrong._

_No. _He let out another shaky breath he didn't know he had been holding since he first saw the green trees before him, all the while still shaking his head.

_No. It isn- I'm not supposed to be here. _He gasped as he felt immense despair coursing through his whole body.

He closed his eyes again and tried to calm himself down by regulating the pace of his breathing. Several minutes later when he deemed himself calm enough, he crawled to a nearby tree. He hold onto it with his hands and started to hurl his very exhausted body up to a standing position. After several failed attempts, he was finally able to stand up with shaky legs, though he was still using the tree to support himself. Now that he was standing up, he could see further. H esaw a field full of flowers some distance away from his current position.

The scenery was very beautiful, as one would expect when looking at the flower field in the deepest part of Tataroo Valley during night time, not that the man knew the name of the place he was currently looking at, nor did he care how beautiful it was. His mind was in a jumble as he stared with disbelief at the scenery before him and unconsciously willing everything to go away. He stretched out his senses to his surroundings and after focusing very hard, he let out yet another shaky breath as he couldn't find what he was looking for.

He brought up his hands and stared with wide eyes at his open palms. _I- I failed... an- and now I am stuck in this unknown place without any means to go ba-_

His eyes became even wider as he remembered something else and started frantically looking around. His gaze finally fell onto two swords, one red and one blue, lying on the grass not far away from him. He tried stretching his leg and when he thought he could handle walking a small distance, he left the tree and clumsily stumbled towards the two swords. He gently picked them up and looked at the blade that looked much duller than before. Many thoughts raced through his mind as he tried to put the swords together and nothing happened.

He closed his eyes tightly and tried very hard to fight back the tears that were threatening to come up to his eyes. He thought back to his home, his family, his friends, and all the people that placed their hope in him. He finally shook his head to rid of any negative thoughts that came up. This wasn't the time to wallow in grief. This wasn't the time to just stop because of one mistake, no matter how grave that mistake was. He wasn't allowed to even think of giving up. He was the only hope left and he would succeed.

_It's alright, everything will be alright. If I give up now, then I will really fail. Right, as long as I don't give up, everything will be alright._

He opened his eyes again and this time, instead of despair, determination shone in his eyes as he began to think about what he should do next. Lloyd Irving Aurion was never a person to give up even in the direst situation.

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**Author's Note:**

Yes. I know the prologue looked confusing, but somehow I myself like prologue that's confusing as hell... maybe it's because of the suspense ^^" Hopefully such a confusing start won't deter you from continue reading this fic.

As promised, here's the major twists you needed to know before reading chapter 1 of this story:

1. Instead of Van, Asch chose to follow Kratos when he left Baticul. Read Ch. 25-28 of FI if you want to know more about it.

2. Kratos knew Van wanted to overthrow the Score and had been keeping tabs on him as he didn't want Van to do too much harm to the world with whatever plan he had. Mostly mentioned in Ch. 8-10, 19 of FI.

3. Dist was a triple agent for Kratos and spied on both Van and Mohs. The reshaping of the personality of the God-General mostly took place in Ch.11, 14-17 of FI.

4. Cantabile, who was the unofficial adopted daughter of the previous Fon Master, Evenos, and the unofficial sister of original Ion also worked with Kratos to keep tabs on Van. Cantabile first showed up in Ch. 13 of FI.

5. Kratos was facing the crisis of having his own life mana, the mana of Derris Kharlan and the angels on it being converted to Seventh Fonon, which was actually a more serious problem than it sounded. The Cruxis Crystals on the angels would become functionless once the conversion completed, making it the same as a forced removal of the Cruxis Crystal from the host bodies without Rune Crests. Read Ch. 22-24&30 of FI if you want a better explanation

I think that's about all the major things you needed to know, so now, sit back and enjoy this story, or if you want, go to my profile and click onto Fonic Interruption, read it, get a grasp on what's going on and come back to read this fic^^

_Uploaded on 17 June 2013._


	2. First Impression

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

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**Chapter 1: First Impression**

Asch swung the sword around several times to get a better feel of it. He had tried to fight off the monsters he just encountered with it and, to his utter bewilderment, found that this sword was easily the worst he had ever used, even the wooden sword he trained with when he was still a child was better than this. Sure, the sword looked grand and would be a good choice for one without any knowledge of swords to use it for decoration, like the one that he just got it from, but to any experienced swordsman like Asch, it was nothing but junk.

_To think he dared ask me to come down just to get this stupid sword. And now I am sent on yet another errand to get another garbage like this, I hope he was prepared to fight me full force when I see him next. _Asch thought darkly as he sheathed the sword, Lost Celesti, and strapped it onto his waist. _Still, it would be a good idea to train by fighting the monsters here with this useless thing._

Lost Celesti ws one of the six weapons that were said to be the catalysts for the Planetary Fonic Arte and had the power of Rem. Not that Asch saw the importance in that nor did he see why this useless junk was held with such high regards. He had gone to Grand Chokmah to retrieve it because Dist said he needed it and he started to regret saying yes to the request. Asch knew that the man was just too much of a chicken to go to there himself even after so many years.

_If he had the guts to exchange letters with the Emperor and even asked him to give up one of the swords in his possession, be a man and go there himself! It isn't like he is still considered a criminal there. Tch. What a coward. _Asch thought bitterly as he recalled the meeting between him and the Emperor of Malkuth.

**~ A week ago ~**

"Halt!" Two spears crossed before a cloaked figure when he got too close to the entrance to the palace where the Emperor of Malkuth for the guards liking. "State your business!"

The cloaked figure removed his hood and let his long red hair fell down his shoulder. "I'm Asch Aurion. I have a scheduled meeting with Emperor Peony at two."

Although the Malkuthian soldiers wore helmets that covered their eyes – _really, how do they see with the metal obscuring their eyes? At least those in Kimlasca and Daath have a hole to let them see_ – Asch knew that they were glaring at him while taking in his appearance.

After a while, one of the soldiers lifted his spear and saluted. The other immediately followed his colleague's example and also saluted to Asch. "Sorry for the interruption, sir Aurion. Emperor Peony is expecting you and His Majesty has informed us to tell you that he would be waiting in his private quarters."

Asch arched an eyebrow at that but otherwise didn't say anything. He knew the meeting wouldn't be in the throne room as they didn't want to draw too much attention. But in the Emperor's private quarters? And without asking him to leave his weapon behind? Were these guys for real? He inwardly shook away the thoughts of impotent guards and started to push open the heavy double door in front of him. He had fully opened the door when one of the guards spoke.

"Sir Aurion, please give my regards to your father, I was one of the people he saved in the Battle of Northern Chesedonia."

Asch inwardly sighed and nodded at the soldier before entering the blue castle. He wasn't the adopted son of Kratos, but for some bizarre reason, people tended to make the same mistake of thinking of him as the man's son, sometimes even before he managed to tell the others his false surname. It also didn't help that Kratos now looked to be in his late thirties, the appropriate age to be his father.

Among all the angels in Derris Kharlan, Kratos was the one that had the most contact with the Fonon of Sound and so the conversion rate of his mana was the fastest. Although not all his life mana was converted to Seventh Fonon yet, his Cruxis Crystal and Rune Crest were already fully converted and he had lost some of the angelic abilities. Though the ones he lost weren't that important and truth be told, Kratos himself was quite grateful for the new changes. All his enhanced senses were still intact and he still got that inhumane strength of his, but instead of mana, his wings were now composed of pure Seventh Fonon. He could also feel warmth and hunger again and needed to sleep like a normal human, though he could still go on for two days straight before having to sleep.

If he remembered correctly, Dist said it's because his internal clock had resumed the moment the Cruxis Crystal lost some of it's function and since his metabolic rate had become normal again, he needed food and sleep to maintain his body. However, since from what Kratos once said, his home world had shorter years than Auldrant, something like two years there equaled to one year here, he's now aging twice as fast as the humans on Auldrant. So although he only resumed aging five years ago, now he had a body that was going to hit the line of forty even though he didn't look the part.

Asch only used the name Aurion in situation like this to avoid Van from getting wind of a red haired boy without any family name showing up and made the connection between him and the original Luke fon Fabre. But then he also couldn't use his name too frequently as Kratos was trying to keep a low profile himself. The man had managed to make a name and become something like a hero in the last war fought between Malkuth and Kimlasca, though that wasn't his intention when he marched into the battlefield and started saving people that were unluckily caught in the crossfire. He even saved some of the soldiers from Kimlasca, Malkuth and Daath that were too injured to continue fighting.

Of course Kratos wisely never told anyone his name, but people with red hair that helped Malkuthian soldiers were just too hard to forget, seeing as most other red heads were from Kimlasca and would have killed any Malkuthian soldiers they met, not save them. Kratos had been frequenting Chesedonia since a long time ago and people tended to start remembering having once had a certain mercenary with the name Kratos Aurion working for them once rumours of a mysterious man wearing violet clothing with wild red hair and wine colored eyes going around saving people here and there during the last war started flying around.

Since then, Kratos had been lying low and mostly just stayed in Derris Kharlan. Being Kratos' student, Asch had also been staying in Derris Kharlan mostly for the past two and a half years. Though sometimes there were some matters they needed to take care of and had to go back to Auldrant. But even then, due to the whole driving-people-insane problem, Asch had to leave Derris Kharlan on his own sometimes to avoid being influenced too much by the aura of death Shadow was constantly emitting in the lower part of the planet.

Therefore, apart from Derris Kharlan, he also sometimes spent his time in Namcobanda Island, a place he almost considered his second home since he left Baticul seven years ago. The people there were willing to let them stay when they couldn't show themselves in bigger cities like Chesedonia due to Kratos' heroic deed. Truth be told, it was only Kratos that couldn't show himself, Asch was free to do whatever he wanted as he wasn't involved in the Battle of Northern Chesedonia.

He was forced to stay in Namcobanda Island for the whole duration of the war as Kratos had specifically stated that he would attract unwanted attention and make Van realize that he was in fact not as dead as he thought. When he and Kratos first heard of the rumour about a certain red headed hero flying around from Dist, he had to roll his eyes at the ironic of Kratos, the same one who forced him to stay away from the battlefield so as not to attract unwanted attention, made himself known to nearly the whole world.

It's been two and a half years already and the mysterious disappearance of the equally mysterious hero of the war started causing the rumor to falter. Now, apart from those that were personally saved by Kratos, people started to doubt the existence of the mysterious hero, now renamed as the Phantom Warrior due to his mysteriousness.

Some were saying that the description of the man's appearance that was flying along with the rumor was wrong, some were saying that the name was wrong as people only wanted to boast having a hero working for them before, some were saying that the man disguised himself before joining the war due to his being a criminal of one of the nations, and the most ridiculous, and also made the most sense, saying was that the man actually died in the war or died sometime after that and that's why no one was able to find him.

Asch knocked on the door twice after he stopped before the room he knew to be Emperor Peony's private quarters. Moments later, a maid opened the door and bowed to him. "His Majesty is expecting you."

He nodded to the maid and went to the other side of the room. He heard the maid leaving the private quarters and lightly closed the door behind her. Before he knocked on the door to the Emperor's bedroom, a voice called out. "Come in."

He opened the door, took in the scene before him and frowned. The room was messy. It didn't even remotely resemble the room a royalty should have. Then he saw the rappigs Dist warned him about. He had thought Dist was just exaggerating, something the scientist did almost all the time, when he said the Emperor of Malkuth was obsessed with rappig and was a very messy man that didn't know how to clean up after himself, leaving his rappig-filled room dirty and disorganized twenty-four-seven.

"Hey there, you must be Asch." The Emperor stood up from the ground and regarded the teen before him. "You really look like your rumored old man."

Asch narrowed his eyes at the comment. He knew the man knew perfectly well that he was not related to Kratos in any ways and was only his student, yet here he was saying things like that to try to get under his skin. Though he hated to admit it, everything was just as Dist told him before. One would not be able to tell that this man was the Emperor of Malkuth if they didn't know beforehand, but Asch could feel the subtle gesture and aura emitted by the confident and seemed to be carefree man that showed his authority as a nation's ruler.

"By the way, how's Saphir doing?"

"Fine. Where's the sword?"

Peony grinned and shook his head. "Such a straight forward kid. I know the two of you aren't related, but you even feel like Kratos when he gets down to business, though with a lot less glaring in his case. You also seemed to be more impatient than him."

Asch scowled at the 'kid' comment. "I have to get away as soon as possible. It's bad enough that one of the guard in the front gate mistook me as Kratos' son."

"Huh? One of the soldiers rescued by him?" Asch nodded.

Peony sighed. "I will give him a talk later about not letting news of his savior get out."

Asch nodded again. "Now where's the sword?"

Peony walked over to a pile of junk, no, weapons of various kind when Asch looked closer at the pile that seemed to be just junk at first glance, and picked up a sword that was lying on top of it. "Here." He threw the sword to Asch who caught it easily.

Asch began examining the sword in his hand. Peony cleared his throat and he shifted his attention back to the Emperor. "By the way, when I reread the message Saphir sent me just now, I noticed I overlooked the part saying that the McGovern family also has one of the other catalyst weapons. In fact, this sword and that other weapon are something like a pair." He fished out a letter from one of his pockets. "If you take this letter and show the sword to General Glenn McGovern, he would give you the weapon."

**~ End Flashback ~**

So now he had to go to St. Binah to get yet another useless weapon that was supposed to hold the Fonon of Darkness, as opposed to the Fonon of Light in Lost Celesti. He didn't understand why he had to go through so much trouble to get some weapons that emitted the Fonons of Light and Darkness when they had the Aggregate Sentience of Light and Darkness within easy reach. If Dist really needed it, he could just ask Kratos to have Rem and Shadow help him with the research on the Planetary Fonic Arte. Kratos had a pact with Rem and Shadow owed him for helping him with the power imbalance thing or whatever it was that Kratos once told him.

He switched back his weapon to his normal one and stored Lost Celesti into a wing pack. He figured that he should just hurry up to get it over with and not waste anymore time by prolonging the battles with local monsters using the garbage of a sword. He still had another full day of walking before finally getting to St. Binah. Then he picked up a shrill whining of a very familiar yet at the same time also unfamiliar voice.

"Guuuyyy, how long is it till we get to St. Binah? We have been walking for nearly two days already and I am feeling very tired now." Asch paused his steps and started to connect the owner of the voice to someone he had been hating with passion for the past seven years.

"Haha, feeling tired so easily? Here, let me take your stuff, Luke." He saw red when he heard the name, confirming his suspicion. Yes, Kratos had been working on his anger and bitterness all these years, and the man had said it himself that Asch was handling the whole situation well, but maybe it's because of Shadow's influence finally getting to him or something else, right now, he couldn't think of anything but kill the bastard that dared took away everything from him and ignored the small voice in the back of his mind saying that it wasn't the boy's fault and he shouldn't hate him.

* * *

"Luke, I am sorry to drag you into this, please endure it for at least a little bit longer." Ion said kindly with a guilty look in his eyes.

In the gentle Fon Master's mind, everything was his fault. It's because he had left Daath with Anise to help deliver Emperor Peony's letter of peace to Baticul that the Six God-Generals were after him. Though to be fair, even if he remained in Daath the Six God-Generals would still take him to the Sephiroth demanding him to remove the Daathic seal, but at least the others wouldn't be involved. But then again it was important that he, the supreme leader of the Order of Lorelei, was the one to deliver the letter to make it easier for King Ingobert to accept Emperor Peony's peace offer.

He knew what the Score said about war breaking out, but he wanted to believe that the Score was just a single path among the many possible futures. It helped that they now also had the son of Duke Fabre to back them up, but Ion still felt guilty for involving them into this. Now even the Tartarus, the warship Emperor Peony deployed for this top secret mission, were taken over by the Oracle Knights. And there were also the soldiers that had been on it when it was being invaded. How many did Jade say was on it again? A hundred and forty. Over one hundred people were killed because of his decision to help Malkuth.

He knew that sacrifices were inevitable during war times. At least their deaths wouldn't be in vain when they gave the letter of peace to Anise who then managed to escape. But he didn't think the Six God-Generals attacked them just because they wanted to stir up war and fulfill the Score. If it's Mohs he could understand. After all, the Grand Maestro had forbidden him to leave Daath when Jade first showed up in Daath to ask for his help. But then he was taken to the Absorption Gate, Radiation Gate and Shurrey Hill to remove the Daathic seal on the Sephiroth.

He was sure he would be forced to remove the seals of the other Sephiroth if not for Luke and the others breaking out of their prison on the Tartarus and saved him. But he didn't understand why the Six God-Generals wanted access to the Sephiroth, there were still the Yulian seals on the passage rin-

"Stop whining." Ion's train of thoughts were interrupted by Tear's sharp words at Luke. "Even Fon Master Ion hasn't complained, and you are supposed to be physically stronger than him." She said a bit coldly, but still with hidden gentleness, to the boy she now knew to have gone through many unpleasant things due to his kidnap seven years ago.

"Tch. I wasn't asking you. Cold blooded woman." Luke said irritatingly and purposefully looked away from the girl who was actually younger than him by one year.

Tear narrowed her eyes at Luke. When she went to the Fabre manor to kill her brother and stop him from committing the crimes she was sure he was going to commit and harm the world, she never thought someone would interfere, especially when she had already used the First Fonic Hymn to paralyse all the people there. But then this boy, the son of Duke Fabre and the student of his brother, had to be the one to interfere. Worse, Luke also had Seventh Fonon in his body, creating a pseudo hyperresonance when their weapons clashed and sent them to Tataroo Valley, a place hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away from Baticul.

She was guilty for involving others in her family matters and she had the responsibility to escort Luke home, but the boy had been trying on her patience since the first day they met. It didn't help that they had taken the wrong carriage and instead of Baticul, they had been unknowingly heading for Grand Chokmah. She didn't know if it was luck or misfortune that they ended up getting off the carriage and managed to go to Engeve once they realized their mistake.

On the one hand, it's because of that they managed to protect the Fon Master and help the cheagles with their problems and saved the residents of Engeve from being the future food source of the liger queen and her babies. However, on the other hand, it's because of meeting up with Ion that Jade had discovered that the two of them were the ones that illegally traveled to Malkuth territory using hyperresonance and brought them to the Tartarus.

She was about to say something to Luke when Jade suddenly cut in. "It's good and all that the two of you are getting even closer tha-" He suddenly paused and whipped out his lance. He looked at their surroundings with sharp eyes.

Tear and Guy also went into their battle stance the moment the eldest member of the party took out his weapon. All that remained was Luke, who was still clueless to what was happening. "Wh-"

"Icicle Rain!"

"Move!" Jade shouted as a cloud made of ice suddenly appeared above Luke's head. The others started to jump away when Tear noticed that Luke was in a stupor and rushed to push him out of the way. "Tear!" Luke shouted at the girl that took the attack for him. Tear hissed in pain as several large pieces of sharp ice made both deep and shallow cuts on her body.

"What? Need a woman to protect you? What a coward." A voice said with an icy tone and Luke barely managed to held up his sword in a defensive position when a shadowy figure appeared before him. A loud clang was heard as the two blades met and Luke's sword went flying into the air due to the impact.

"What a useless trash." The newcomer said and kicked Luke hard in the cheek making the boy fly a few meters away.

"Luke!" Guy shouted and rushed to help his best friend who had become unconscious due to the powerful kick to his head.

Jade already had the point of his spear trained on the enemy, ready to strike at a moment's notice. But he didn't dare leave the Fon Master unguarded as he didn't know what the true purpose of the young man before him was. He also didn't want to take the risk of rushing into the battlefield and let whoever it was that might be hiding from them found the chance and captured Ion. Therefore, instead of moving away from Ion to engage the enemy, he started examining the boy he had never seen before.

His eyes widened slightly as he took in the appearance of the boy before him and felt the Fon Master behind him stiffened. _No. It can't be-_

"Asch! Stop!" A new voice joined them and Jade shifted his gaze to the woman that just appeared behind the boy. The deep dark violet haired woman with an eye-patch over her left eye held firmly onto the boy's sword arm.

"Cantabile, what are you doing here?" Asch spat venomously at the newly appeared Oracle Knight, as indicated by her standard uniform for females soldier working for the Order.

"The other God-Generals are nearby. It is only a matter of time before Van shows up. Leave now." Cantabile said firmly, leaving no room for argument.

Asch held a glaring match with Cantabile for two seconds before finally relenting and sheathed his sword. The pair then left the group without saying another word.

Jade would have pursued if not for his standing guard for the Fon Master. Speaking of which, he remembered feeling the green haired boy became rigid when they were looking at Asch, was it because-

"Cantabile." Ion whispered the name and when Jade turned around to look at him, he saw a faraway and sad look on the Fon Master.

"Is she one of the Six God-Generals?" Jade asked.

Ion nodded. "Sh- she's Cantabile the Void."

"What about the other?"

Ion shook his head. "I have never seen nor heard of him before. I don't think he's an Oracle Knight judging from his clothes. But then..." He trailed off and shifted his gaze to the red headed noble who was unconscious in Guy's arm.

"Why would Major Cantabile... first Major Legretta, now even Major Cantabile?" Tear whispered as she sat up from the ground and started healing her wounds. Ion quickly rushed over to her side.

"Tear, are you okay?" The Fon Master asked.

"Yes. I am fine, thanks. It's nothing I can't heal." The female soldier placed her hand over one of the deeper wounds on her arm, her hand glowed green and later when she removed her hand, the wound had already disappeared.

Jade narrowed his eyes at the exchange between Tear and Ion. He slowly drifted his gaze to where Luke was still lying unconsciously in Guy's arm and noticed that the swordsman's eye was not on his young master, but on the direction where the boy who just attacked them and the woman who now known to be Cantabile the Void disappeared to. "That woman..." He heard the servant whispered.

Really, he wasn't young anymore and Peony just had to give him a mission that quickly became something like babysitting five little kids plus a cheagle, each with a different secret and/or an unspeakable past. At least one of them wasn't here now. But still, with most of his strength sealed away by the fon slot seal Largo had hit him with when they were on the Tartarus, he wasn't sure he could protect all of them if they continued to act like they were on a field trip.

* * *

Kratos stood before the entrance of Radiation Gate. It's been seven years since he last came here. Last time he was here to ask the Aggregate Sentience of Light to help with their plan to replicate Rune Crests, but was unable to do so as Rem was still suffering from power lost and didn't have enough strength to help them. After seven years, Rem had finally recovered enough power to help with their plan and this time, he was here to finally carry out the first step.

Actually, Rem had had enough power since three months ago, but they didn't have the means to remove the Daathic seal on the Sephiroth. Not to mention that they also needed to wait till Dist had furthered the fomicry research so that they could make perfect copies of the Rune Crest without destroying the original. It was only a week ago when he heard that Ion had removed the seal here so he could enter the Sephiroth.

They knew Van was going to do something to the passage ring, but they still didn't know what exactly he was going to do, or maybe it's just him and Asch that were left out of the circle. Although everything looked normal on the outside and the two God-Generals did tell him that the other secret research Van had been carrying was about artificial hyperresonance, he had a feeling that there's something both Dist and Cantabile had been keeping from them, like how the two insisted that Van didn't trust them too much and hadn't told anyone apart from Legretta, Sync and Largo the details of his plan. Truth be told, he was worried about the two.

In Dist's case, he noticed how the man's behaviour changed here and there the longer he spent time on Derris Kharlan, and then there was _that _accident. Though mostly he seemed to be perfectly fine and was still on the way to recover from all the damage Jade did to his personality in his adolescence, he still couldn't shake away the feeling that there's something amiss with him. Dist also told him that he wanted to finish the last mission Nebilim failed when she was still serving as an Oracle Knight, as it was his duty as her student. He had been contacting both Nephry and Peony about it and Kratos was glad that the lonely scientist was taking the initiative to contact his other friends.

As for Cantabile, though she wasn't subjected to the influence of Shadow as she didn't even know of the existence of Derris Kharlan, ever since the death of Marcel, she became more withdrawn than before. It also didn't help that after the Battle of Northern Chesedonia, he was unable to spend much time with her. In fact, it was only through Dist that he knew of Cantabile becoming one of Van's trusted Six God-Generals, claiming that she wanted to become more involved so she could take more appropriate and immediate action should something happen.

However, he was most worried about Asch. It's true that the boy had become less bitter during the last seven years, but he still had anger issue. To make matter worse, Asch had been spending quite a lot of time in Derris Kharlan and thus was influenced by Shadow even on a higher degree than Dist. Sometimes when he told the boy to get back to Auldrant on his own, the boy outright refused. He knew it was because the boy wanted to show him that he could fight back and not give in to the dark urges. The boy was too prideful, reckless and stubborn for his own good.

Seriously, he needed to find more reasons to make the boy spend more time away from Derris Kharlan. Before the last war, he could still take Asch with him to do some mercenary jobs here and there, sometimes the two of them would go to Namcobanda Island to help with the construction, but after the war, he couldn't take mercenary jobs anymore and the construction of Namcobanda was finished one year ago.

When Dist asked him to get Lost Celesti for the Planetary Fonic Arte in Grand Chokmah, he immediately told the scientist to ask Asch instead. That was also when the scientist told him about the removed Daathic seal in the Radiation Gate and that whatever Van had in mind for his plan was going to start soon. Another thing he needed to worry about was Van's action. He knew he had been scheming and making connections here and there for the past seven years, but there was only so much he could do when he had to hide Asch from him. At least Dist told him that the Fon Master wasn't under his influence.

Before Asch left, he had told him that he wouldn't be in Derris Kharlan for the next few weeks and he could come to the Radiation Gate to look for him after he finished his part. Yes, a few weeks, that's the amount of time required to fully convert the Rune Crest from a mana-based object to one that's fonon-based, at least that's what both Dist and the calculation of Derris Kharlan's core system told him.

Kratos easily dispatched the artificial guardians in the Radiation Gate and arrived at the bottom of it. He walked over to the passage ring where memory particles were continuously pumping up from underground to become the Sephiroth Tree to hold the crust high above the liquefied mantle and miasma. However, different from the other Sephiroths, the memory particles here were more intense as this was also the place where the Planet Storm started.

He took out the Rune Crest from his pocket and stared at it. It was the Rune Crest of Mithos. Though his Cruxis Crystal was shattered, the Rune Crest was still embedded on the chest of his dead body. Although he wasn't present when his student died, Lloyd had told him that Mithos showed regret in the last moment of his life. And now he was going to use his Rune Crest for their plan.

He's not Mithos and he couldn't understand what was going in the half elf's mind anymore so he couldn't say something like Mithos would be glad that at least his Rune Crest could help the other angels. However, he wished Mithos would feel that way. He wished he could say something like this was Mithos' way to atone for his own sin. He wanted, desperately, to believe that his student still had some good remained in his heart, but he couldn't, not even after what Lloyd told him about his last moments, for he's gone now and Kratos shouldn't make any assumption about what a dead man wanted, no matter how much he wished it were true.

Kratos mentally shook his head to clear away the thoughts of his long gone student and called forth his fonon wings, his pale blue translucent wings that were made of pure Seventh Fonon. Though the shape was still the same, not even a trace of mana was in his wings anymore. Even his blue mana signature that gave color to his previously sky blue colored wings became a pale blue due to the Seventh Fonon.

When it was near the time for all the mana in his own Cruxis Crystal to become Seventh Fonon, they needed to make sure that the crystal and its suppressor would be fully converted at the same time as otherwise it would be like a forced removal of the Cruxis Crystal without a Rune Crest. Kratos couldn't just remove his Cruxis Crystal together with his Rune Crest and wait for them to fully convert before re-equipping them. They didn't know what side effects would come up if they remove a partly converted Cruxis Crystal and didn't want to take the risk. The procedure was very delicate, but it was still easily done when one had the Aggregate Sentience of Light and Darkness and an expert fontechnician to monitor the whole process.

Since Cruxis Crystal was something like a mana booster, after it changed, it became a fonon booster exclusively for the Seventh Fonon. That's the reason he still had his wings and his enhanced senses. The supposedly irreversible process of stopping one's metabolic rate so they could stop aging was also reversed when the mana booster was no more.

They weren't sure about the reason for that but Dist speculated that it was because at the time all the mana of the Cruxis Crystal disappeared, the mana level in Kratos also greatly decreased, and since the metabolic rate was stopped through the manipulation of the mana in his body, the sudden removal of a huge chunk of the body mana restarted the metabolic process. The explanation seemed okay, but then Kratos had also once given up a large amount of the mana when he released Origin's seal, in fact, he had emptied all the mana in his body at that time.

When he told Dist about it, minus the part that he nearly died and the reason he did that, he speculated that Kratos might stop aging again if they re-injected a large amount of mana into his body, or there might be a time factor involved and after a certain time passed, his aging won't stop again even if they did that, unless he found a way to manipulate fonons to stop his aging process again, which Kratos wasn't going to do no matter what. There was no need for him to live an eternal life anymore. Though he might need to find a way to manipulate his body fonons to make his aging slow down to match the people on this planet soon.

He took out a wing pack and from it, a small device that looked like a jewel box, but with tiny holes all over it and two clamps on the bottom. He opened the lid and placed the Rune Crest into it. It was Dist's invention, a little gadget that would facilitate the conversion from mana to the Fonon of Sound by intensifying the exposure of the Rune Crest to the Seventh Fonon when placed in an area full of Seventh Fonon. He flew to the middle of the passage ring where a large statue of the symbol of the Order of Lorelei was erected and attached the box to it. The clamps on the bottom held onto the metal surface so that the box wouldn't move from its place even when the barrage of fonons washed over it.

After he made sure it's attached correctly and firmly, he flew back to the pathway. Now all he had to do was wait for the light on the side of the box to start flashing signalling the completion of the conversion. He could go away and come back in a few weeks time, but apart from his own Rune Crest, this was the last they had and he didn't want any accident to happen to it. He had packed enough food in his wing packs so it's fine. Although he didn't have a non aging body like before, he's still a very patient man and waiting for a few weeks in this confined area with nothing else to do was nothing compared to the four years he spent on Derris Kharlan before coming to Auldrant, or other times when he was forced to wait and couldn't do anything else in his four thousand year long life.

* * *

**~ Skit: Guy's crush~**

Guy: (Deep in thought)

Luke: Hey Guy!

Guy: (Still thinking)

Luke: Hey Guy! Stop!

Guy: (Still ignoring Luke)

Luke: I said st-

(smack)

Tear: Oh Guy! I am sorry! I didn't see you coming.

Guy: No it's fine, I am the one th- (eyes bugled as he finally realized who he's bumped into) Aaaahhhh~ (continue screaming and left the scene)

Luke: What's with him? He's been like that all day.

Mieu: I know! Master! I know what's wrong with Guy!

Luke: Shut up! As if a thing like you could know more about Guy than me.

Mieu: Mieuuuu...

Tear: Luke, stop being so mean all the time! Mieu was just trying to help!

Ion: Mieu, what do you think is wrong with Guy?

Mieu: I think he's in love! He looks just like what the elders told me before in the love stories!

Luke: As if.

Jade: But it's true that he's only started looking like this after we met Cantabile the Void. He also had this serious look when he asked for her name. Isn't that right, Ion?

Ion: Y- yes.

Luke: Huh?

Jade: Hmm... I am pretty sure I heard him uttering her name tenderly every once in a while since then too.

Luke: No way! You are just joking, right?

Jade: Why would you think I am joking?

Luke: Guy doesn't like women.

Tear: Having gynophobia and not liking women are two different things.

Luke: Of course I know that! I was just saying!

Tear: Saying what?

Luke: Anyway, Guy wouldn't like such an old and ugly woman.

Tear: Who are you calling old and ugly!? Major Cantabile is a respected... (Luke and Tear left the scene and continued arguing)

Ion: You did that on purpose.

Jade: Can't be helped that our group is full of hormonal teenagers.

Mieu: Mieu?

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Thanks so much for the reviews! I see that including Lloyd in it is the right thing to do. To tell the truth, Lloyd only found his way into this fic when I was writing Ch. 23 of Fonic Interruption ^^" And I had only planned out the whole fic when I was thinking about Ch. 5 of this fic. Yes, I have already written the outline of chapters after this, but I am not going to post them too quickly as I don't want to suddenly stop for a month or more like before because of something like a writer's block. I am still experimenting with the right pace for me to post the chapters, so it may be updated quite frequently for the first few chapters.

**1412 karasu –** Wow. Such a lengthy review. I do appreciate you taking the time to tell me what I have done wrong. The prologue of Fonic Interruption was the first fictional chapter I ever wrote, so I am still quite new to this fanfic writing thing and I love it when people point out my errors so I can improve ^^ About my problems with oral English, it's mostly due to the on-the-spot nature of it, though sometimes I tend to find it hard to twist my tongue when I speak too fast (I speak quite fast in my native language that even my parents said they couldn't catch what I'm saying :P). I get your meaning about run-on sentences, that's one of my oldest and most persistent problems. Sometimes when I do the final edit before I post the chapter, I would see a lot of run-on sentences and had to separate them into two, sometimes three, short sentences. But it seemed I overlooked some of them, I will try to be more careful in the future. I also see the need to make different variations to the sentences, or maybe I should say saw. I'm not sure myself, but I think I had gotten lazier on that aspect the more I write... it helps that you tell me that here to remind me of that. Thanks for the advice^^ By the way, what is a direct kind of writing style?

When I read the official guide book of TOA, I saw that it actually took Luke and the others two and a half months just to get back to Baticul from Tataroo Valley, and since it's Auldrant we are talking about, two and a half months means nearly 150 days (a month in Auldrant has 58 days)... but that's too slow for my taste, so the pace would be much faster here.

I know Ion was only taken to Shurrey Hill when he was first captured in the game, but he also mentioned that he was already taken to the Absorption Gate and Radiation Gate before the party went to the Sephiroth in Tataroo Valley and I just don't see how he could have removed the seals on the two largest Sephiroth unless he was taken there when he was first captured.

By the way, I know it's nothing important... but I don't want to spend time coming up with a new attire for Asch... so I will just leave it to your own imagination, just remember that he was wearing dark as otherwise he wouldn't be the opposite of Luke at least in the clothing department.

I don't want to bore you guys with something that everyone knows. So I will continue skipping around or just focus on those that weren't in Luke's group until the important part came where the deviation from the game became obvious.

Ah yes, the Nebilim side quest. In my opinion, it's the most important side quest (they even made a two volume manga just for this side quest) and it just felt incomplete to me if it isn't included in the story. Though this time instead of Jade's side gathering all the catalyst weapons, Dist's side would also gather some of them.

_Uploaded on 20 June 2013._


	3. Hidden Agenda

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 2: Hidden Agenda**

Several miles from where a group of five travelers, plus a cheagle, were still recovering from the shock and injuries acquired from their previous encounter with the unlikely pair of a red haired boy and a deep violet haired woman, said pair could be seen navigating their way towards St. Binah.

"So Asch, where have you been? I haven't seen you and Kratos in a while." Cantabile asked the still fuming swordsman beside her.

"None of your business." Asch sneered.

Cantabile shrugged. "I was just doing my job, we both know we need your replica alive for this to work."

Asch closed his eyes, count to five, and opened them again. Now he was feeling a bit calmer than before, but he was still glaring at some imaginary opponent before him. "Sorry Cantabile. I know that, I just couldn't control myself."

Cantabile nodded, even though she knew Asch couldn't see her as he was too focused at a random spot before him. "I know, sometimes it's just hard to reign in your emotions, especially when you see the one you hate being all carefree. So where have the two you been?"

"Here and there, but mostly I am the one taking jobs. You know how Kratos couldn't afford to show up in cities when nearly the whole world is looking for him." Asch didn't mention anything about Derris Kharlan for Cantabile didn't know about the planet yet.

When Kratos first decided that he didn't want too many people to know about him being an angel and about Derris Kharlan, he told them that it would be on a need-to-know basis and not even Cantabile should know about it. Dist had protested against it, saying that Cantabile was their partner and that they should also let Marcel know about it. In the end Kratos had convinced the scientist, but the topic still came up once in a while. However, after Marcel died in the Battle of Northern Chesedonia, Dist stopped pestering Kratos about letting Cantabile in on the secret.

Cantabile sighed dramatically. "Right, sometimes it's just soooo difficult to become a famous person. So why are you here? Another job?"

"I am going to St. Binah to get something for Dist as he is still obviously a coward and didn't want to face the authority figures of Malkuth." Asch rolled his eyes at his own mention of the other's cowardice. "What about you? Something about Van?"

Cantabile chuckled at Asch's description of the other God-General. "Yes, words have gone out that the Fon Master was missing and Van has asked us Six God-Generals to look for him. I have been following their trail and that's why I was in time to stop you from doing something stupid."

Asch arched an eyebrow. "That green haired kid? He didn't look to be in any danger. In fact, it seems that Malkuthian soldier was doing quite a fine job guarding him."

The female God-General shrugged. "Don't know, I am just following order. But you were right about the part that he didn't seem to be in any danger. That's why I just dragged you away and didn't make any attempt to grab him."

Asch nodded. The two continued walking together for another five minutes before Asch noticed something. "Why are you following me?"

"Nah, some of my subordinates are in St. Binah and I needed to go there and collect them." Noticing Asch's frown at the mention of her subordinates, she added, "I will take you to a passage where there are no Oracle Knights stationed so you can get in without being seen by them."

"Fine. Lead the way." With that, the two set off in the direction of St. Binah.

* * *

_Don't panic, Lloyd Irving Aurion, you can do it. _Lloyd recited the phrase several times more in his head and suddenly sprinted forward.

"Sonic Thrust!" He thrust his sword forward with all the strength he had at the tree in front of him. After the attack finished, he pulled the blade out from the tree trunk. He looked at the small dent and started cursing.

It was the fifth day since he woke up in this nameless forest – well, there might be a name for this forest, but Lloyd had no idea what it's called – and he still hadn't recovered even a tenth of his strength. Yuan had warned him that he might suffer from severe mana exhaustion even when two of the most powerful Summon Spirits used all their mana _and_ the mana stored in the Eternal Sword for the transfer. But Verius also mentioned that the blood link between him and Kratos would be able to lessen the toll on his body.

However, it didn't matter anymore. He was supposed to be sent to Derris Kharlan using all of Verius, Maxwell _and _the Eternal Sword's mana, but he woke up to find himself in some kind of forest in a place that had a distinctive lack of mana instead. The Summon Spirits had said that although the link was weak as Derris Kharlan was already very far from Aselia, they could still use the blood link between him and Kratos to strength the link between the two planets and gave up all their mana to make the transfer possible.

He wasn't good at thinking about all the technical terms, but he trusted Verius when he told him no one could make it other than him as he was the only one to have a blood relative on Derris Kharlan, so there shouldn't be any reason that he was transported to this unknown place. Unless he had other blood relatives on this planet, which sounded ridiculous even in his own head. Right, he had thought it ridiculous to have a four thousand year old angelic father that looked more like his brother than his father, but it just wasn't possible for him to have relatives on a planet that didn't have any mana on it.

Lloyd sighed. _No matter, what's done is done. Now all I need to do is find a way to wake Verius up and we could try to do the transfer again. I know I didn't sense any mana in this world, but hopefully it's just because my sense hasn't recovered yet and I can find something similar somewhere in this world... otherwise I would have to wait for Verius to recover. _

Although there were two Summon Spirits that gave him the mana to do the transfer, only Verius came with him. Maxwell still had a pact with Sheena so he didn't come. It would be hard to do the transfer again with only Verius and the Eternal Sword, especially if there's no mana in this world. However, call it a blessing in disguise, if there's indeed no mana in this world, Verius would be able to recover faster without another Summon Spirit vying for the mana Lloyd's Angelus Sphere was continuously generating.

Meanwhile, he needed to make a full recovery from the mana exhaustion. He remembered Genis once told him something like he would be able to house more mana in his body if he was more physically fit. So if his deduction was correct, getting his body back to shape would also shorten the time it took for Verius to recover. Then there was still the exploration of this new planet. If he was stranded in this planet for an unknown amount of time, it would do him good to at least get to know more about it.

He flexed his fingers that were starting to feel numb just from the vibration of the sword hilt when the blade collided with the tree trunk. _Still a long way to go till I recovered at least a tenth of my normal strength... I didn't really have the time to just sit idly doing nothing, but there's noting else I can do apart from starting from some basic exercise to get my body back into shape._

He sighed. _I know there's no shortcut when it comes to recovering... but it's still frustrating... at least the monsters here are easy to evade even when I'm this weak. _

* * *

It was late morning of the next day when Cantabile and Asch finally arrived at St. Binah. True to her words, Cantabile had taken Asch to St. Binah through a road that was devoid of any Oracle Knights. In fact, there wasn't even a living soul in the vicinity. It didn't sit well with Asch, St. Binah was one of the larger cities in Malkuth and it was very populated. It was simply not possible for one of the main roads here to be this empty and his instinct was screaming danger. He was about to turn to Cantabile and ask her what was wrong with the city when he saw the female Oracle Knight made the first move.

He didn't know what was happening, just that for some strange reason Cantabile had lashed out to him. He jumped away in the last minute to avoid her sudden roundhouse kick at his midsection. He skipped a few steps backwards and saw the woman getting into a battle stance.

"Wha-" His question was cut off when he felt something very fast heading his way and, without knowing what it was he sensed, he rolled away, as it was one of Kratos' first lessons to him that one should level stayed at the same spot for too long and should keep on moving during battle. He heard two loud bangs and saw two thin trails of smoke rising from two small dents on the ground he just stood. Bullets.

His rolling came to a stop and he unsheathed his own sword as he got up from the ground. He looked up and saw a blond haired Oracle Knight standing about fifteen meters away from him. The woman looked to be the same age as Cantabile and had her hair tied up behind her head. Asch narrowed his eyes at the newcomer who was pointing her guns at him. Bullets, guns, he knew who this woman was. She was Legretta the Quick, one of the Six God-Generals and Van's most trusted subordinates. He turned his body slightly so he could keep an eye on the other member of the Six God-Generals who still had her guns trained on him while looking at the other female God-General that was standing a few meters behind him.

"Who is this?" Legretta asked.

"Asch. The original Luke." Cantabile replied.

"What is the meaning of this?" Asch sneered at the violet haired Oracle Knight that he thought was on his side.

"Thing's changed, that's all." Cantabile replied and suddenly dashed forward with great speed. A hand was gripping tightly at the sheath of her katana while the other rested lightly on the hilt. The stance for quickly drawing her blade and injuring those in front of her.

Asch dived forward and felt Legretta started firing bullets after bullets at him. Just as he was about to stop, Cantabile was already in front of him and made a move to unsheathe her katana. "Void Tempest!" He quickly brought up his own sword to block the attack and lessen the gust that was generated by the motion of quick drawing. A loud clang was resounded in the empty road as the two blades met.

"Why? We trusted you!" Asch shouted at the one-eyed woman that was currently locking blade with him.

"Too bad the world doesn't work that way!" Cantabile rebutted.

Asch saw her sword sheathe coming at him from his right. He quickly pushed with all his might and succeeded to make Cantabile stagger a few steps backwards. However, before he could follow up with another attack, he had to pull up his sword in front of him again and just in time blocked another three bullets Legretta fired at him. He hissed in pain as a fourth bullet that his sword didn't manage to block grazed over his shoulder. He began turning around and started making his escape.

If it's only one opponent, he might be able to hold his own. However, there were two and he wasn't sure how much Cantabile had improved since they last sparred two and a half years ago. And the gun wielding female Locrian Colonel was not someone to be overlooked either. He felt another bullet made its way into his thigh and nearly cried out in pain and dropped to the ground. Despite the pain, knowing that he couldn't afford to stop here, he dragged his injured leg and continued running, hoping to widen the distance between him and his two pursuers.

He didn't know where he was running to, he wasn't even sure if the two women were still chasing after him. The only thing in his mind right now was to get out of this part of the city to another place where there were more people for him to mix in. After another minute or so running as fast as he could with his injured leg, he finally came to a more crowded part of the city. He pressed a hand on the wound on his thigh that had been oozing out blood in an attempt to stop the blood from flowing. He was lucky that the other bullet only grazed over his shoulder so the wound was quite shallow and the blood flowing from it wasn't too much to alert passersby. Though it would still be glaringly obvious he was injured gravely if one were to look his direction and really pay attention to the red haired boy that was walking funnily.

He limped his way through the crowd and carefully avoided bumping into people in his state. He didn't want to alert anyone and scared them away and thus making himself a clear target for Legretta's bullet if she was still nearby. After limping around for another five minutes, he was sure he had shaken off his pursuers, or they simply didn't want to cause a commotion. He walked over to one of the alleys. He lied on the wall and slowly slid down to the ground. Only then did he stop pressing on the bullet wound and started examining the extent of his injury.

He winced at the sight of his bloodied leg. I_ have seen people treat a bullet wound before. _He clumsily took out a wing pack from one of his pockets with trembling hand.

From the wing pack, he took out something that looked like a first aid kit. It was something Kratos drilled into him when they left Derris Kharlan and took him to his first mercenary jobs: to always bring an emergency first aid kit. Especially since Asch didn't knew any healing spell himself. Though Kratos had stressed the importance of this to him and he had accepted the man's words at the time, albeit reluctantly, he still scoffed at the idea of having to carry a first aid kit around like a weakling. However, he was very grateful he had the kit with him right now.

He opened the box and started looking for something sharp. _I know it's gonna be painful, but the first thing I need to do is get the bullet out. _After some fumbling, he finally found what he was looking for and picked it out of the box. He was about to begin a mini operation to take out the bullet when his hand started trembling violently and dropped the needle and spatula he was holding.

_Damn. I have lost too much blood. _He cursed and started to get up from the ground again. _I can't do it on my own, I need to get some hel-_

"Asch? What are you doing here?" His eyes widened as his brain registered who the voice belonged to and looked up to see one of the last person he wanted to see now.

_No. _He started backing up only to fall down due to his injured leg.

"You are bleeding!? What happened?" The man came closer to him and he started to unsheathe his sword. "Is that a bullet wound? Legretta?"

"Stay away!" Asch shouted and pointed his sword towards the man.

"What are you-"

"You are working with Cantabile, right?"

"Cantabile?" Then the man gasped. "I see... so she finally..." he muttered and shook his head. "No, Asch. I am not taking you to Van." He frowned at the boy who obviously wasn't going to trust his words and still had his sword pointing towards him.

"I don't care if you trust me or not, you need help now or you are going to bleed to death." He pushed the blade away without much resistance. The moment the blade wasn't pointing at him anymore, Asch lost his grip due to his violently trembling hand and the sword dropped to the ground with a loud clang. "See, you are losing too much blood that you can't even hold onto your sword. Now stop being stubborn and let me help you."

Seeing that the boy was still putting up that defensive look of his, he crossed his arms and huffed irritatingly. "Look, does it really matter if you are going to die anyway whether I am taking you to Van or not?" He snapped at the stubborn boy before him.

For some strange reason, Asch felt his body started relaxing at the tone that was laced with irritation and somehow know that the man before him was not going to betray him like Cantabile. "Only you can make people believe your words by snapping at them." He joked halfheartedly and felt the world started spinning around him as his vision began to darken. The last thing he saw before darkness engulfed him was the indignant mixed with worried look on the bespectacled God-General.

* * *

"So, Anise is here, right?" Luke asked.

They had successfully entered St. Binah unnoticed by the Oracle Knights standing guard at the front gate thanks to Rose from Engeve. The woman seemed to think that she owned them for having mistaken Luke as the thief and had let them hide in one of the wagons to help them get into St. Binah undetected. Now all they had to do was regroup with Anise.

"She's to meet us at the Malkuth military base. If she's still alive, that is." Jade said with an air of unimportance as if just stating the weather of the day.

"Do you really have to say things like that?" Luke looked grossed at how the Malkuthian Colonel could say something like the death of another with such a carefree tone. Then he looked at the others. "Let's go."

"Try not to do anything to draw the attention of the Oracle Knights." Tear warned.

Luke waved his hand at the girl impatiently. "I know, I know. You don't have to tell me every little thing."

"Hmm? She's already got you whipped, huh, Luke? Princess Natalia's going to be jealous." Guy joked, teasing both his young master and the female Oracle Knight.

Tear had this unreadable expression as she looked at the grinning swordsman. She slowly walked up to him and grabbed his arm with both hands, knowing full well what effect it would have on the man who was suffering from gynophobia.

"Don't say stupid things." She said coolly as Guy started screaming due to the close contact with the female.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Stop touching me! Please!"

Tear let go of Guy, who fell to the ground twitching, and dusted her hands off, satisfied with the other's reaction.

"Perhaps this journey will help Guy overcome his phobia." Ion nodded sagely.

Without further ado, the party of five headed to the military headquarters. Upon entering the compound, Jade strolled up to a soldier standing nearest to them. "I'm Colonel Jade Curtiss, Third Division, Malkuth Imperial Forces. May I speak with General Glenn McGovern?"

The soldier saluted. "Yes, sir. General McGovern is currently seeing a guest, so please wait inside."

As they neared the door, they could hear three different voices arguing from inside the room.

"Father, we need to arrest him!"

"Woah, wait there. I am already outside the jurisdiction of Malkuth and you can't do anything to me. And I have Pe- _Emperor_ Peony's letter of recommendation here." Jade's eyes widened slightly at the second voice and held up a hand before Luke to stop the Kimlascan noble and the others behind him from going any further.

"He's right son, if we do anything to him, it would spark a diplomatic incident."

"But-"

"But nothing. We have no reason to refuse him."

"I don't want to impose, so if you could kindly give me the weapon..."

"That's fine. Take Locrian Colonel Dist to the weaponry."

"Yes, sir!"

"Father!"

"Lost Celesti will react to its pair so you will know which one is the Blood Pain right away."

"What about my other request?"

"We will give the boy shelter till he recovers or when you are able to take him away." Jade heard the sound of residing footsteps, then the sound of another opening and closing.

"Father! He had betrayed Malkuth! How can you be so carefree and agree to his terms just like that?"

"Enough! His past doesn't matter anymore, and how could we refuse him when he had a letter written by His Majesty and is just asking for us to take care of an injured boy?"

"A letter... written by His Majesty..." Jade whispered.

"Huh Jade? What is it?" Luke asked.

Jade ignored the question and continued listening to the conversation inside the room.

"Then what about the Oracle Knights? Didn't you just say we need to find a way to make them withdraw their troops from St. Binah? He is a Locrian Colonel, why didn't you press him more on the issue? What about that boy? Don't you think it's weird that he asks us to heal him and take care of him when he has a whole troop of soldiers stationing here under his command?"

"He told us that the Oracle Knights in the city are under Locrian Colonel Largo and not him. And are you arguing with me just for the sake of arguing? You yourself said that the Oracle Knights are considered Scorers and we can't restrict their actions before he showed up." Jade narrowed his eyes at that. He thought he had killed Largo the Black Lion for sure on Tartarus, but apparently the man was more resilient than he first thought.

"Yes, but if the boy's what the Oracle Knights are after, then-"

Deciding that he had heard enough, Jade opened the door. "My apologies for interrupting." That might be what he said, but his tone was anything but apologetic.

"Jade the Necromancer." Glenn McGoven, the General that managed the Malkuth military base in St. Binah, whispered after he finally registered who the one that interrupted their argument was.

"Oh! If it isn't Jade!" Elder McGovern, the father of Glenn and retired Field Marshal exclaimed the moment he spotted the chestnut haired Colonel.

"It's been a while, Field Marshal McGovern." Jade gave a slight bow. "I know it's rude to ask, but could you tell me what _he _is doing here?"

"I'm retired now. There's no need for those formalities anymore. As for your question, little Saphir is just here for a small favour." He waved his hand in dismissal when he noticed Jade's guarded expression. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing important. I doubt it's related to why you are here anyway." He added the last sentence as an afterthought.

"Who are they talking about?" Luke whispered to Guy who shrugged telling him that he had no idea either.

"By the way, Jade, you and His Majesty go way back, don't you? Could you ask him to do something about the Oracle Knights?" The elderly man asked.

"Is Jade somebody important?" Luke asked his servants again with the same small voice.

"Sounds like it." The servant answered with an equally soft voice.

Jade acted as if he hadn't heard the exchange between the two and answered the question directed at him. "I'm afraid they're after us. Once we leave the city, they should leave as well."

Glenn furrowed his brows at the reply and muttered something like 'so it isn't him' under his breath while his father looked a bit worriedly at Jade. "What happened?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you the details. I'm under direct orders from His Majesty. I'm sorry."

"Colonel Curtiss. What business brings you here?" Glenn asked, realising that although the man had been standing there chatting with his father for quite some time already, he still hadn't told the others the purpose of his visit.

"Ah, yes, my apologies. Have you received any letters from a Fon Master Guardian?" Jade asked with that professional voice of his, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened just now.

"Ah, that." Glenn recalled the letter they received several days ago from a little girl with a doll on her back. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we opened it to confirm the contents, for security reasons."

Jade nodded. "That's fine. There shouldn't be anything in there that would be a problem for you to see."

The General handed a letter to Jade. He was about to read it when Elder McGovern interrupted. "It's best that you go to another room to read it. He would be coming back soon as he was just fetching a weapon and you don't want to be discovered by the Oracle Knights, right?" Jade nodded and led the party out of the conference room and followed one of the soldiers to another room.

"So," Luke began once they were inside the new room, "this 'he' you were talking about, I take it he's also an Oracle Knight?"

The question was directed to Jade, but it was Ion who answered. "Yes. He's Dist the Reaper, one of the Six God-Generals."

"Another one? Why do I feel like everyone we are meeting is one of them... just what are they" Luke asked.

"They are the six executive officers of the Oracle Knights." Ion answered. "Largo the Black Lion, Dist the Reaper, Sync the Tempest, Arietta the Wild, Legretta the Quick and Cantabile the Void."

"They are Van's immediate subordinates." Tear supplied.

"Master Van's?" Now Luke was curious, although he had been Van's student for seven years, he had never heard nor was he interested at his master's subordinates until now.

"The only one we haven't seen yet is Sync the Tempest." Jade pointed out. "I guess it's safe to assume that we will come across him in the near future."

Tear nodded. "If the Six God-Generals are taking action, then the one who's trying to cause a war is Van."

"The Six God-Generals side with the Grand Maestro. Mohs is likely giving orders to Van." Ion added.

"Grand Maestro Mohs would never do something like this." Tear defended. "My mission for the Grand Maestro is top secret, so I can't divulge any details. However, I assure you it is one of peace."

"Wait a minute! Master Van wouldn't try to cause a war either!" Luke protested loudly.

"It's just the sort of thing my brother might do." Tear said coldly.

"What are you saying!? What about you, huh? How do we know you're not a spy working for that Mohs guy!?" Luke rebutted.

"Please settle down." Ion stepped in, hoping to stop the two from arguing.

"He's right." Guy also stepped in. "Now's not the time to be worried about Van or Mohs. Right now, we have to get past the Six God-Generals and prevent this war."

"... you're right. I'm sorry." Tear finally said.

"Humph. I'm not accepting the apology of anyone who badmouths Master Van." Luke childishly crossed his arms and looked away from Tear, who was glaring at him.

"Well, now that that's over, let's read Anise's letter." He passed the letter to Luke. "I have already read it when you were still arguing. It appears half of it is addressed to you. Here you are."

Luke blinked at the offered letter. "It's from Anise, right? I could see her writing to Ion, but me?" He took the letter from Jade and started reading it out aloud.

"Dearest Colonel Jade, I had a really scary time, but I managed to make it here. Don't worry, I'm taking good care of you-know-what! Aren't you proud of me? It looks like the Oracle Knights are going to close off St. Binah soon, so I'll go ahead to the next location. Is my beloved Luke safe? Oh I'm so embarrassed! I just confessed my feelings! I'm really worried. Luke, I miss you so much. I can't wait to see you again! Oh, and give my regards to Ion, too. Bye-bye for now! Love, Anise."

"I think I'm gonna be sick..." Luke said after he finished Anise's letter that was full of 'love' to him.

"Damn, Luke, popular enough with girls?" Guy said in his teasing mode again. "Just don't get carried away. You're engaged to Princess Natalia, you know."

"You've gotta be kidding. I don't want anything to do with that annoying chick..." Luke shivered slightly as he thought about the bossy princess.

"What's the 'next location'?" Tear asked with a calm tone, ignoring the two that were messing around.

"Kaitzur. It's a city to the south-west of here, on the other side of the Fubras River." Jade replied.

"If we make it to Kaitzur, we can rendezvous with Van." Guy said.

Luke perked up at the name of his teacher. "Master Van's there?"

"Van..." Tear whispered.

Noticing the expression on the female soldier and remembering what Luke told him about what happened, Guy decided to say something to Tear about attacking Van the moment she saw him. "Hey, I don't know what happened between you two, but you're his sister, right? Don't go trying to slice him up like you did in Baticul, okay?"

Though with some reluctance, Tear accepted the blond swordsman's words. "I know. I won't."

Jade nodded. "Well then, if everyone's ready, I will go bid farewell to the Field Marshal and the General, then we will be on our way."

* * *

Dist looked at the boy resting in one of the beds in the guest room in the Malkuth military base in St. Binah. Normally he wouldn't dare come too close to any place that would have people capable of recognising him as Saphir Wyon Neis at first glance, even after the eleven year mark had passed two years ago and he was free to come and go from Malkuth territory. But he didn't have a choice this time when the other Six God-Generals and so many Oracle Knights were in St. Binah. He was lucky that he found Peony's letter and Lost Celesti when picking up Asch's belongings and trying to put the first aid kit back into the wing pack.

He knew it would look suspicious to the McGovern father-son pair that a God-General was trying to protect a boy from the Oracle Knights. Granted, he didn't outright tell them that, he only said that the Oracle Knights might leave soon and Asch was too injured to travel or to be transferred, but he knew it was very obvious that he was lying and someone like the McGovern's would be able to pick up the truth easily. However, he didn't have the time to find another safer place than the Malkuth military base from the Oracle Knights and to fabricate a better excuse for them to take in the gravely injured boy.

There's also the problem that he couldn't stay here for long as he was sure the other Six God-Generals would leave St. Binah soon, thinking that the Fon Master was not in the area anymore, and it would look suspicious if he didn't leave the city with them, not to mention that Cantabile would immediately know what's wrong. He couldn't ask Kratos to come and look after the boy either as he knew the angel was currently in Radiation Gate carrying out a very delicate process. They're too far apart for him to be able to contact the other anyway.

He took out the catalyst weapon he just got from the weaponry here. Blood Pain, a spear that was laced with the Fonon of Darkness, and the type of weapon that Jade wielded. Speaking of Jade, he knew the party would come by soon to get the message left by Ansie several days ago. He was already here when the girl had sneaked in and out of St. Binah, thinking that she had successfully evaded all the Oracle Knights.

He knew Peony had requested the Fon Master to deliver a peace treaty to Kimlasca. In fact, he was the one that gave the idea to the Emperor by hinting that another war would break out soon according to the Score in the letters he sent to him. Of course he didn't write down the exact words in the Closed Score or outright write that a war was going to break out, but he knew, although he still wouldn't admit it out loud, that Peony was smart enough to know what to do.

"Dist." He averted his gaze from the spear and saw that Asch was awake.

"That's fast, you are only unconscious for three hours." Dist nodded. "How are you feeling?"

"Dull throbbing in my thigh, but otherwise okay."

Dist arched an eyebrow at the reply. _Only dull throbbing? I am sure it would take a normal person much longer to at least wake up. _He mentally sighed at the stubborn boy who had such a serious pride issue that he wouldn't admit he was in pain.

Asch took in his surroundings. "Where are we?"

"The Malkuth military base in St. Binah. The Oracle Knights won't search here."

"What? Finally brave enough to be a man and not a woman who always hides behind the others?" Asch snickered weakly.

Dist's eyebrow ticked at least twice at the boy's rude comment. "I will have you know that I was only busy with my other duties and couldn't go to Grand Chokmah myself."

Asch snorted. "Busy my ass." Then before the God-General could make a comeback, he asked the question that had been burning in his mind since he came to St. Binah. "So what's the deal with Cantabile?"

Dist stopped from lashing out at Asch for his comment and had this unreadable look on him. The reflection on his glasses obscured his eyes making Asch unable to guess what's on the man's mind. After a while, Dist answered Asch's questions, drawling out each and every word, as if he didn't want to say it at all.

"She changed about one and a half year ago. When Evenos died, she clung to the belief that she would one day finish Evenos' last wish, to overthrow the Score. Then when Marcel died in the Battle of Northern Chesedonia, she began hating Van with passion. I am not sure what happened after that, but then everything changed some time after Ion died. Although I was still doing experiments for Van as if nothing happened, I found that Van wasn't letting me in on some of his plans and also started to become more guarded when I pried too much."

Asch narrowed his eyes. "Cantabile sold you out."

"No. Not really, she just hinted to Van that he shouldn't let too much people in on the plan. She never told him anything about me working against him." There was a bittersweet smile on Dist as he said the next part. "Though I suppose that's more than what I could hope for, especially considering what happened..."

"What happened?"

Dist shook his head. "It's nothing important. Anyway, since you and Kratos were more or less in hiding and that Kratos was more like an observer overseeing Van's plan, Cantabile didn't see the need to tell Van all this... that and also she still considers us her friends..."

Asch snarled. "If she considers me her friend, she wouldn't suddenly attack me! With Legretta no less."

"I..." Dist closed his eyes and leaned back on the chair. "She once threatened me that she would tell Van about me if she thought I am actively doing something against Van and that the only reasons she's not doing it right away were because my expertise was needed and that she didn't want to outright do something to hurt one of the remaining links she has to her past... but you... I don't know... I don't know what she's thinking anymore..."

"Then why didn't you tell us she's betrayed us?" Asch would have sneered at the man that nearly indirectly killed him if not for the sad and helpless look on him.

"No! She hasn't betrayed us... our original intention was to led Van carry out his plan to overturn the Score, otherwise you and Kratos would have stopped me from performing experiments for him a long time ago. Cantabile... she simply decided to actively participate in his plan."

Asch stopped the words he wanted to say at the desperation in Dist's tone and chose to just repeat his previous question without the word 'betray'. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I... I don't want you and Kratos to think of her as something like an enemy... and... and I- I owe her..." Dist whispered the last part with such a low and sad voice that Asch knew he shouldn't pry more into the matter, at least for the time being.

* * *

**~ Skit: What are they after? ~**

Guy: A penny for your thoughts, Tear?

Tear: I am just thinking about Van and the Six God-Generals.

Luke: I told you Master Van has nothing to do with them capturing Ion!

Tear: I don't want to go into that with you now.

Luke: Why you-

Guy: Luke, Tear is right, there is no point in arguing over something we have no idea about.

Luke: Humph.

Tear: All we have to do now is to evade the Six God-Generals.

Guy: But there's something I don't understand... Jade, what do you think about Cantabile and Dist?

Jade: What about them?

Guy: Cantabile didn't do anything to capture Ion, in fact, she saved us from that Asch guy. And you have heard the Field Marshal and the General, right? It doesn't look to me that Dist is looking for us either. There's also this mysterious boy that Dist seems to be protecting from the Oracle Knights.

Jade: We don't know if the Oracle Knights are really after whoever Dist asked the McGovern to look after. After all, it's only their speculation and we all know that the Oracle Knights are in fact after Ion. As for Cantabile, who knows what's on her mind?

Tear: Ion, is everything alright? You don't look well. Do you want to go back to St. Binah to rest? The Six God-Generals already left so it should be fine.

Luke: Again!? We have already wasted a day because Ion needed to rest yesterday too.

Tear: Luke! How could yo-

Guy: You are just sad, right, Ion? After all, the Six God-Generals are also your subordinates and they are now trying to capture you.

Ion: Yes. I may not personally know them, but it's still hard to think that they will go so far just to capture me.

Jade: Now that you mention it, I think Cantabile didn't even spare a glance at you when we met her.

Ion: ...yes...

Guy: Ion?

Ion: It's just... Cantabile never liked me from the beginning...

Tear: ! But I remember Major Cantabile saying that she's on your side and not the Grand Maestro's side when I first trained under her.

Ion: Yes... she may be on the Fon Master's side, but that doesn't mean she has to like me...

Tear: But-

Guy: Tear, just leave it.

Tear: … I'm sorry for bursting out, Ion.

Ion: That's fine.

(Luke, Tear, Guy and Ion left)

Jade: Does that mean my suspicion about Ion is true? ... and Cantabile knows... if that's the case...

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**patrick the almighty observer** – It's true that Asch was a jerk in the last chapter, but he's only like this because he heard Guy casually talking to Luke like that. The Asch in the game knew who Guy was because Van told him, but the one in this fic didn't know that. Being the clueless kid he was, I'm sure he had wanted to help Guy and become friends with him. However, Guy had only gotten over his past and became friends with the others in Fabre manor after Asch was replaced by his replica. So I'll say it's quite normal for Asch to want to lash out at Luke for 'taking' his 'friend' away from him.

**1412 karasu** – I have been learning it since kindergarten.. Now that I think of it, it's quite sad that I still have grammar mistakes and don't have a large enough vocabulary repertoire to make my fic look nicer. Especially since reading English fics is one of my favorite pastimes too. I suppose not knowing too much vocab is also why I am using this direct writing style. Truth be told, I suck at different writing styles even when I am writing in Chinese...

**splitheart1120 –** Too bad Asch's got his hands full at the moment so we can't really see what his post-encounter reaction was. Hmm... I don't know, maybe he will reflect on it in future chapters? I'm not telling here XD

**Yue Twili –** I suppose this chapter answered one of your questions already. As for Lloyd, who knows? All I can tell you is that it's in the coming chapters XD

**yourComrade –** Glad you like the skit ^^ I tried to make the skits funny, but apparently the skit of this chapter was more informative than funny. Though the ones to come will be much more funny (… I've already written the skits for the next few chapters even though I haven't finished the actual chapters...)

**hopper18 –** Not sure how to put it... but Lloyd's age is something like a spoiler? Well... not really, but I'm not telling now. As for an ageless Kratos, I get your meaning, it feels weird if he's not eternally 28... but he hadn't changed much physically. I mean, the Keterburg crew didn't look 35 either.

I forgot to say in the A/N of last chapter that there won't be any more omakes at the end of each chapter. I'm replacing them with skits.

The exchange between Dist and Asch might be a bit weird and there seemed to be a lot of contradicting and missing details about Cantabile's betrayal. However, remember that although Dist knew it beforehand, he was still not prepared for Cantabile suddenly acting against Asch and both he and Asch were still recovering from the shock of Cantabile's action.

I've planned her betrayal a long time ago. I don't know what you think of this, but compared to Dist, Cantabile was more likely to change side. Dist might be emotionally unstable at times, but all he needed was a strong anchor to lead him through life. That role was played by Jade before and it was because of Jade's action that he felt like the whole world had crashed down on him and became 'crazy'. Now that Kratos was that anchor, the possibility of him losing sight of the 'correct' path was quite slim. Unless he's another Mithos, but Kratos already sorted out his desire to revive the dead with him.

Although Cantabile seemed like an emotionally strong girl (woman now), she's the one that had gone through the worst during the past seven years, what with all her loved ones dying one after another... now that I think of it, it's quite like Tsunade, losing both her lover and brother within a short period.

By the way, just a little interesting fact, in the manga Reminiscence of Jade, Dist was only hit by Nebilim because he was protecting Anise. It showed how much he valued his friends. When it came to choosing between his friends and the world, I'm sure he would choose the former without giving a damn about the consequence (I wasn't purposefully making it sound like a certain someone in TOD...), and that's my reasoning for him not telling Kratos and Asch about Cantabile.

Arte used in this chapter:

Lloyd - **Sonic Thrust** 瞬迅剣 _Shunjinken_

Cantabile -** Void Tempest** 真空破斬 _Shinkuuhazan_

_Uploaded on 24 June 2013._


	4. Perfect Isofons

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 3: Perfect Isofons**

It had been a week since the Six God-Generals left St. Binah with the other Oracle Knights. Van had met up with Ion and his group in Kaitzur two days ago and were now heading to the Navel Port. He had specifically ordered them not to do anything else at the moment as he had everything under control.

Dist was currently waiting in a forest near Kaitzur, having received a call from Asch to meet him here. He was furious when the boy contacted him about meeting in this forest. He had told Asch to stay in St. Binah to rest, but apparently the stubborn boy refused to just lie on a bed doing nothing but wait, stating that he had recovered enough and could use his leg again. That was four days ago and only three days after he was injured. Really, had the boy never heard of wounds reopening if he wasn't careful enough and tried to move so soon after an operation to get a bullet out of the muscle?

He was sure he could bodily drag the boy back to bed if he wanted to, especially since Asch was already injured. But Asch had to call him only after he had left St. Binah and refused to let him know his exact location, so there's nothing else he could do except wait at the designated meeting place.

He heard movements behind him and turned around to see a cloaked man emerging from one of the bushes. Though the figure was covering himself from head to toe with the dark grey cloak and nearly his whole face was hidden behind the hood, Dist knew right away from how the sword strapped on his waist that this was Asch.

He was about to open his mouth and started scolding the boy for travelling so soon after being wounded gravely but was cut off by Asch. "Where are they?"

"Who?"

"The replica."

Dist blinked, not understanding why Asch would want to know where the replica was, except- "What are you going to do to him?" He narrowed his eyes at the boy before him.

Asch rolled his eyes at the man's tone. "I am not going to bodily harm him... yet... if that's what you are thinking."

Dist crossed his arms and looked at Asch suspiciously. "Then why?"

"We both know that Van wanted something from him, but we don't know what. What do you say we spy on the replica instead from now on?" Asch suggested.

Dist frowned. "How? Jad- I mean, the others are with him nearly all the time. And if I do something like that, Van would notice."

"I remember you once said that perfect isofons make the best means of communication."

The frown deepened. "Well yes, I did say that, but who said the two of you are perfect isofons?"

Asch ached an eyebrow at Dist's tone, it was almost as it the man didn't want them to be perfect isofons. "We don't know that, and what if we are?"

"Even if you are, we still have to open the synchronized fon slots on the two of you to make it possible."

"You can do that, right? To check that if we are perfect isofons and open our synchronized fon slots, that is."

Dist furrowed his brows and thought about Asch's suggestion. "I can do that, but we need a fomicry machine for that... the closest one is in Choral Castle..." He trailed off and looked at Asch to make sure that the mention of the fomicry machine in Choral Castle didn't upset him too much.

To his amazement, the boy still retained a calm expression as he said his next words. "Then that's where we are going next."

Dist sighed. "Right, but then there's still the problem of luring him to-"

"Dist?" A female voice called out and they both turned to look at the newcomer.

Dist gasped as his gaze fell onto the girl standing behind them. "Arietta!? What are you doing here?" He asked the pink haired girl, hoping that she hadn't heard too much. The second youngest God-General was riding on a liger that was easily three meters long.

"I was going to kill Mommy's murderer and get Ion back when the ground suddenly started shaking and some weird gas came up. I fainted and when I woke up Ion and the others are gone. My friend told me that he will bring me to Ion, but then when we passed by the forest he said he smelled Mommy's murderer so here we are." Arietta explained.

"Your mother's murderer?" Asch asked.

"Her mother's the liger queen." Dist answered and turned to Arietta. "Who's the one that killed your mother?"

"The ones that are travelling with Ion." The large monster the female Oracle Knight was riding seemed to have said something to her. Arietta nodded to her companion and pointed at the cloaked figure. "He said he smells like him, but he's not the one that killed Mommy. Dist, is he your friend?"

Asch seemed to have thought of something and started introducing himself to Arietta before Dist could say anything. "I am Kratos Aurion, a travelling mercenary, there's something Dist wanted from the one that smells like me and he hired me to help him with it. But it seems I alone am not enough to do the job as our target is always surrounded by his comrade. What do you say we cooperate so you can have a chance to avenge your mother?"

* * *

Lloyd looked at the city that was bustling with life on the edge of a desert. When he left the forest and valley he first woke up in, he saw two different roads stretching to Origin knew where. After some stick throwing he decided to take the left path, which unfortunately led to a dead end where something that looked like a destroyed bridge was after slowly walking for two days. After contemplating and cursing his luck for a while, he decided and realized to his horror that he shouldn't fly that much, if at all, in this mana depleted environment, especially when he himself was still suffering from mana exhaustion.

He traced his steps back to the spot where the path deviates and took the path he hadn't taken yet. This time, after walking for another four days with short rests in between, he finally saw civilization in the form of the city he was currently looking at. He noticed to his relief that the beings residing this planet were also humans and not some green and ugly monsters with only one eye he saw in one of Genis' picture books when he was just a child.

_So I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult for me to mix in._ He started making his way towards the city gate.

However, just before he entered the city, his enhanced hearing picked up something from inside the city that made him stop. He stared from his position outside the city at the busy streets that was full of merchants, or he thought was full of merchants, judging from how they were waving their products around while shouting gibberish to those who passed by their shops. Right, gibberish, that was the problem. To his utter horror, he discovered he couldn't understand any of the words spoken by the people here.

_No! How am I to live here if I don't know what they are talking about? I don't want to become something like a hermit! I have had enough for the past few weeks! _Lloyd stared at the busy streets with an expression full of disbelief.

After several minutes just standing there and thinking up different scenarios about him living in the forest and becoming friends with local monsters and animals or living in the city and becoming what others thought to be a social inept or an idiot that couldn't talk nor understand what was said to him, he shook his head to rid himself of the depressing thought. Even if he couldn't understand anything, he should still go into the city and see if there's anything for him to do.

He entered the city and looked around. Everything looked normal, the streets were filled with people mostly dressed in a similar fashion like those in Aselia, the buildings looked like the ones one would find in Palmacosta, the merchants here were busy selling their products and the customers were paying mo-

_Wait. That isn't- oh really, how stupid can you get, Lloyd Irving Aurion. _He slapped his forehead with his right hand when he realized that the currency used here was also different from the universal currency in Aselia. _Of course I can't use my money here._

He sighed. _Right, so I don't know their language and can't use my money... what next?_ He deflated and walked towards the more crowded part of the city, all the while listening to the alien language people were speaking in and trying to pick up anything that he might understand.

He was just walking aimlessly looking around when he came to a dead end where a a building was situated. He looked up to the wooden plate above the door that he knew without any doubt where the name of this shop would be written on. He focused very hard on the alien letters as if willing them to become his own language. He knew it's childish but there's nothing else he could do and-

_Wha-?_ Lloyd stared at the letters that still looked alien to him and somehow had a feeling he knew what the characters written on it was. _Inn... wait, an inn!?_

He blinked. The characters didn't change. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. Still, nothing had changed. But for some very bizarre reason, even though he didn't know the characters, his mind supplied to him what the word meant.

_Ho- how's that possible? _He stared dumbfounded at the wooden plate he now knew the word 'inn' was written on. _Wha- what's the meaning of-_

His thoughts were cut off when something bumped into him from behind and skidded forward a few steps before coming to a stop. He turned around and saw a boy sitting on the ground with groceries scattered on the ground around him.

"Sorry about that, are you alright?" He said and extended a hand to the boy who just looked at him with confusion and said something to him.

However, Lloyd couldn't understand anything that came out of the boy's mouth and instead chose to bow apologetically to the boy. After the boy accepted his hand and he had helped the boy up, he began picking up all the scattered things on the ground. When Lloyd gave the last apple to the boy, the boy mumbled something that Lloyd supposed to be along the line of 'thank you' to him before going off and entered the inn.

Lloyd looked back up at the wooden plate where the word 'INN' of the unknown language was written on and sighed. _I'm still not sure why I can somehow understand what the word written there means, but whatever it is, it isn't helping me understand what the people here are talking about._

He turned around and traced his steps back to the main streets, but this time instead of just looking around aimlessly, he began looking for whatever writings he could find on the street. After half an hour of wandering around, Lloyd came to the conclusion that whatever it was, it made him able to understand the written language used in this planet, even though he was very sure he hadn't seen anything even remotely similar before. He still couldn't understand what the others were talking about and couldn't speak their language.

_So I can read, but can't speak the language... so the only way for me to learn more about this new place is to read. Great. _He let out a defeated sigh. _Just great. Asking a person that hates reading the most to do something like that... _

He let out another huge defeated sigh, resigned to his fate and started looking around for a library. _Think of it this way, at least I can pose as someone who is deaf and mute and still be able to understand what they wanted to tell me if they try to write it down for me... ahhhh! I don't know any sign language! Does that mean I have to learn how to write their language too!? Nooooo!_

Lloyd held his head with both hands as if in great pain before dropping to the ground on all fours, all the while ignoring the stares and whispers of the people surrounding him.

* * *

"I can't believe you are using Arietta for this. You are even using Kratos' name, as if abusing his surname wasn't enough." Dist said. He was typing very fast on the keyboard before him.

Asch shrugged. "I can't use my real name even when it's attached to his surname. Van no doubt has already known about me due to Cantabile. And now even Legretta knows about me. We are lucky that Arietta hasn't seen my face and I suppose she doesn't know about me yet, but it's still risky to tell her my real name. At least this way if Van asked, only Kratos' name would come up and he won't be able to link you to me."

"You are cruel. You do understand that I am the one in danger here if this is exposed, right? And there's a huge risk that Cantabile would say something if she hears any of this, which I assure you she will."

Asch rolled his eyes at the other's words. "Stop complaining, coward. Just lie your way out of it like you always do. You have been in constant danger since day one of your spying."

"Well excuse me but I didn't remember ever signing up to follow a certain reckless brat's whims."

Asch narrowed his eyes at Dist. "Just who are you calling a reckless brat?"

"The one who responded." Before Asch could make a comeback, Dist stood up. "Okay, everything's ready, now lie down over there." He pointed to the platform on the fomicry machine.

Asch scowled. It was the same platform he lied on seven and a half years ago when Van kidnapped him to create a replica out of him. He dragged his body over to the machine, stopped before the platform and glared at it.

"Now stop glaring, do you or do you not want this done? I for one want to finish your part before Arietta comes back or the other God-Generals find us."

"Fine." He hurriedly got into position. "Hurry up, I want to get this over with as soon as possible."

"Who do you think you are ordering? You ungrateful brat." Dist sneered and hit the button that would start the procedure of opening Asch's synchronized fon slots.

Light started enveloping Asch and he had to fight down the urges to squirm around. He knew it wasn't going to do anything to him except opening his synchronized fon slots so he could later communicate or maybe even control that useless replica of his, but his instinct was still screaming for him to get away. He had thought he's over his fear and hatred for all this, but apparently not. Not when he reacted this strongly just from hearing his own voice coming out of that replica _whining_ and saw his replica chatting with his ex-friend like they were best friends.

He closed his eyes to will away the memory of being replicated that was threatening to come up. He tried to think of the happier memories he had after he threw away his life in Baticul, like the time when Kratos taught him how to combine the fonons in his body to his artes to create elemental based attacks, and the time when-

"Done. You are free to go."

Asch opened his eyes and quickly got away from the fomicry machine. He went over to where Dist was standing next to the computer that was connected to the machine. "So now all I have to do is wait for you to open the synchronized fon slots of the replica?"

Dist frowned. "I still have to check whether the two of you are perfect isofons or not first."

Asch raised an eyebrow at that, he remembered Dist also acting a bit strange when he brought up the idea that the two of them might be perfect isofons and decided to ask him about it. "Why-" His question was cut off by beeping sounds that came from a watch-like device somewhere on the computer.

"Someone's entered the Choral Castle, you better go now." Dist said and turned off the beeping sound. The small device was linked to another device Dist placed near the entrance when they first came in. That other device was to scan the atmospheric fonon level and would send a warning signal to the watch-like gadget if it picked up a certain amount of fonon concentration in the air that indicated a person was nearby.

Asch nodded and headed to the other side of the estate that would take him to the cliff, where he would climb and-

"Catch." Asch turned back and just in time saw Dist throwing something very small to him. He caught the thing and saw that it was a wing pack. "There's a rheaird in it. It's fully charged with mana so it should be able to last several hours, though I doubt you need that long just to get to away from here."

Asch raised an eyebrow. "You still haven't finished modifying it?"

"Give me a rest, there's only so much I can do without exploding from all the work Van and Mohs assigned to me, and there's also the monitoring thing in Derris Kharlan."

Asch shrugged and left. He had only taken another few steps when the scientist called out to him again. "Take some rest, or that wound of yours is going to reopen." He waved his hand at the man letting him know that the message had gotten across, though whether he would follow it or not was another question.

Dist sighed after the boy left his line of sight. Really, the boy was too prideful, stubborn and reckless for his own good. If only he could find a way to contact Kratos so he could put a stop to the boy's recklessness...

_Speaking of Kratos, he should have finished by now. _His hand went to one of his pockets where a wing pack that stored the communication unit that would allow him contact the main control room in Welgaia was. _Maybe I should-_

"What the hell are you doing here?"

He paused from taking out the wing pack and looked up to see a pissed off Sync, at least he thought he's pissed off judging from his tone as one couldn't really tell what expression the green haired kid was wearing with the mask covering the upper half of his face. "Ah Sync. I thought you were Arietta."

Sync snarled and started walking towards the fomicry machine. "What part of me look like that Ion-obsessed girl? And you haven't answered my question."

Dist rolled his eyes. "Of course you don't look like Arietta. I was expecting her. As for why I am here, Arietta and I are going to capture Ion and the replica."

The youngest member of the Six God-Generals jumped down from the second platform of the machine and walked towards Dist. "And just what do you want with the replica? Van has made it clear that he's off limit. He also told us not to do anything to the Fon Master until they reached Baticul."

"I'm not going to do anything to him, I am only going to check if he and the original are perfect isofons to further my own research and to make sure that whatever plan Van is going to use him for would work. As for the Fon Master," Dist shrugged, "it's more like a cover to let them think that we're just trying to stir up war by capturing the Fon Master _and_ the Kimlascan noble."

"How would you know he's perfect or not? The original isn't here for you to make the comparison."

"His data from when he was replicated is still stored in this machine."

Sync glared at Dist, well, one couldn't really tell if he's glaring, but at least he was facing Dist's direction and Dist had the feeling that that's what the boy was doing. Finally after what felt like an eternity he nodded. "Fine, but only because I am also interested and that the result will indeed help further our plan. I will oversee the whole operation. This is after all an unauthorised mission and we need to make sure that nothing goes wrong. So tell me, what's the plan?"

_At least now that I have Sync and Arietta on my side, the consequence won't be as bad when Van heard of it._ Dist thought as he outlined his plan for Arietta to take a hostage from the Navel Port to lure the replica.

* * *

Lloyd shot up from the ground he was lying on.

He was resting on a grassland near Chesedonia, having been taking yet another break from reading the _first_ book he found in the library. The book was about the atlas of this world. He knew his pace was slow like a snail, but he just couldn't make himself stay still on a chair in the library reading for more than half an hour a time. At least he already learned that the city he was staying in was called Chesedonia, though the pronunciation of some of the cities in this world was a bit difficult to him and he doubted he would be able to remember all of them when he woke up tomorrow.

_That feeling... mana? _He had a hopeful gleam in his eyes as he looked at the direction he now knew a place called Kaitzur was in. _It is coming from that direction... but it is very weak._

He closed his eyes and stretched out his sense, focusing only on that single direction. After a while, the hopeful look was replaced with a frown. _It... disappeared? But how?_

He shook his head and grinned. _I guess the how doesn't really matter now that I know there's mana in this world. Great! Now I just have to find out what has mana here and then I may be able to hasten Verius' recovery._

The grin turned to a frown again as the Eternal Swordsman realized that it just meant that he needed to do more reading. He fell back onto the grass and closed his eyes. _Oh well, I will do it after I have rested enough._

* * *

Asch put the wing pack that stored the rheaird into one of his pockets. He was on top of one of the hills near Choral Castle. He looked down and just in time saw the girl God-General who was riding a griffin with a hostage secured in its claws landed on the roof of Choral Castle. _So the one that entered Choral Castle just now wasn't Arietta. Maybe one of the other God-Generals?_

He shrugged. _Dist would be fine, he has been at this for more than ten years already._

He looked around and found a spot next to a tree to rest that would also allow him to look down and the Choral Castle. He walked over to the spot and sat down. He leaned back onto the tree, putting most of his weight on it instead of on the ground he was sitting on. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh of content as he felt the pain in his thigh lessening just from removing the pressure on it when he walked and sat.

_I don't want to admit it, but he's right, I can feel my wound on the verge of reopening if I applied more pressure to it._

He opened his eyes after a while and looked at Choral Castle. He saw six tiny spots approaching the once vacation home of the Fabre family from afar and knew that they had successfully lured the idiotic replica and his equally idiotic friends into their trap.

_I can just stay here to rest while waiting for Dist to finish his part. _Now that he had decided to take a rest to let his injured leg recover, he settled into a more comfortable position and started his wait.

* * *

Sync looked at the scientist as he typed at the keyboard. Moments later he heard the machine roaring to life followed by a humming noise. He glanced back at the replica lying unconscious on the platform. There was a dim glow as light started enveloping the red haired noble.

Their plan had gone smoothly. The red haired idiot had run straight towards Arietta the moment he spotted her and the girl's faithful griffin had easily captured him. It won't be long till the rest of his ragtag gang traced their steps back to here, but they won't need too long just for Dist to check if this was a perfect creation or not.

_Right... a perfect creation... unlike me..._ Sync glared at the boy that was still unconscious. _How can someone like him be this useful to the others when I- no, I shouldn't dwell on it now._

He turned to the fast typing bespectacled God-General. "How is it?"

"Give me a moment."

"We don't have much time, hurry up." After he said that, he heard Dist grumbled something like 'brats ordering him around' and decided to ignore it. Dist was always the grumpy one that complained here and there, there's no need for him to take anything the man said at face value.

He heard the man gasp. "You have the result?"

Dist nodded, though his hands never ceased their movement over the keyboard. "Yes. E- even the fonon frequency is the same... yes, they are perfect isofons..."

Sync was confused at the man's reply. He thought the man was trying to revive his dead teacher through the creation of a perfect replica. But it sounded like he was saddened by the fact that this fool was a perfect replica of the original. It didn't make sense, or had the man finally realized how futile it was to replace someone with a replica, even when they were the perfect copy of their original, like how this idiot would never become the same person as the original Luke according to what Van had told them?

Anyway, now's not the time for that. "That's good then. Now we just have to erase the data before they come back."

"Stop ordering me around! Of course I know what to do!"

Sync snorted. "Give me a copy of the data so I can let Van know about it." Then he saw out of the corner of his eye the replica opening his eyes. "Oh, look. This idiot here is finally coming around."

"No matter. I already finished what I am here for. There's a slot for fon disc near where you are standing, I am transferring the data over to it. It should come out soon after the recording is finished." He took his own copy of the analysed data in the form of another fon disc and flew over to Sync. "I'll be going now." With that, he left Choral Castle on his flying chair.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Luke croaked out from his lying position on the fomicry machine.

"I see no reason to answer that question." Sync replied and retrieved the fon disc that just came out as Dist had said it would and pocketed it.

He was about to get up when he felt before saw someone coming fast at him. He quickly jumped away and narrowly dodged Guy's attack as blond swordsman unsheathed his katana in a very fast motion and attacked the masked God-General with his sword drawing technique.

Sync somersaulted in mid air and landed some distance away from the swordsman. He felt something slip away from him when he jumped. He quickly checked his pocket and found that the fon disc wasn't there anymore.

"No!" He snarled and saw Guy picking up and examining the same fon disc he just dropped. Still holding onto the fon disc, the swordsman decided he could worry about it later and rushed over to the God-General with his weapon raised.

Sync dodged and blocked the slashes that came at him, all the while trying to get back the fon disc. However, since his mind was too preoccupied with the fon disc, he wasn't fast enough to dodge or effectively block one of Guy's slashes. He turned his head sideways at the last moment to avoid acquiring a fatal wound from the attack that was aiming at his face and had his mask knocked off instead.

Guy stopped attacking and stared at Sync's unmasked face. "What?... you?"

"Guy! What is it?" Guy turned his head slightly and saw Anise running towards him, followed by Tear, Jade and Ion.

However, that slight distraction was all Sync needed as he somersaulted again and performed an uppercut kick which connected with the swordsman's jaw. Guy staggered back a few steps while Sync used the momentum provided by his somersault and launched himself to where his mask landed. He quickly replaced the mask before anyone else could see his face.

"Damn it, they're here!" He cursed and jumped again to somewhere near the exit opposite to where the rest of the group came from.

"This was an unauthorized mission. It's too bad I can't kill you myself, but I'll leave it in Arietta's capable hands. She's on the roof with the hostage. Hope you enjoyed our little game." With that, he turned around and left the large underground cavern of Choral Castle that housed the fomicry machine.

* * *

Kratos stared at the screen before him with knitted brows. When he finally came back after the conversion finished half an hour ago, the first thing he did was go to the main control room to check the percentage of mana of the planet that had been converted to Seventh Fonons. He had assigned one of the computers in the room to continuously carry out the required calculation to let him easily monitor the whole process. However, it wasn't the current status of Derris Kharlan that had him furrow his brows, but the display of one of the other computers in the room.

The screen he was staring at belonged to the computer that was constantly monitoring Auldrant to pick up whatever abnormal strange happenings that occurred to the planet. Nothing out of the ordinary had come up on the screen for the past thirteen years. So he had changed the daily monitoring of the planet to weekly eight years ago, then to fortnightly three years ago. But now, years after he deemed nothing strange would happen to the planet that he wouldn't know beforehand, something he didn't think possible happened.

The detectors in Derris Kharlan had picked up a tiny spike of mana activity alongside a Seventh Fonon hyperresonance near Tataroo Valley several weeks ago, about the same time when Kratos left Derris Kharlan. Though the hyperresonance in itself was abnormal as it came from the direction of Baticul and converged near Tataroo Valley, which meant it traveled across a quarter of the world, the mana signature was even more abnormal.

To Kratos' knowledge, all the things that could emit mana were on Derris Kharlan at the time the spike was picked up, except himself, but he was in the Radiation Gate at that time. And it simply wasn't possible for the detector to have a wrong reading when Dist had just fumbled around and 'upgraded' the system less than a year ago. Though he didn't know what to do yet, he decided that he needed to first find out whoever or whatever it was that emitted the weak mana signature.

He typed on one of the other computers in the room and set the destination of one of the warps to Tataroo Valley. He then exited the room and addressed a nearby angel. "If Asch comes back and I am not here, let him know that something urgent comes up and I have to check something out in Auldrant."

"Yes, Lord Kratos." With that, he headed to the the warp circle that would take him to Tataroo Valley where he would begin his search.

* * *

**~ Skit: Price of hiring mercenary ~**

Arietta: Sync! Why are you here?

Sync: That should be my question. We haven't seen you since you went off after that nuisance of a Fon Master.

Arietta: Stop insulting Fon Master Ion!

Sync: Tch. I just don't see how you are that obsessed with that idiot.

Arietta: Stop that!

Sync: Fine, fine. So what happened to you?

Arietta: I fainted in the Fubras River due to some weird gas that Dist said was the miasma. After I woke up, my friend took me to a nearby forest where I met up with Dist and Kratos.

Sync: Kratos?

Arietta: He said he is a travelling mercenary Dist hired to help him capture Mommy's murderer.

Sync: A mercenary... Dist!

Dist: (Entered scene) I was just nearby, there's no need to shout. Now what do you want?

Sync: Why are you hiring a mercenary for this?

Dist: As you have said, this is an unauthorized mission. I can't ask the Oracle Knights to help me.

Sync: Where's he now?

Dist: I dismissed him after Arietta agreed to help me, it isn't cheap hiring someone of his caliber.

Sync: … not cheap... so he is the Phantom Warrior.

Arietta: Phantom Warrior?

Sync: Tch. Haven't you learned anything from the history lesson? Is there anything else in your head apart from the Fon Master?

Arietta: Sync you meanie!

Dist: Umm... Arietta, there was a war three years ago and someone rumored to be named Kratos Aurions appeared out of nowhere and started saving people here and there. But then no one has seen nor heard of him after that, that's why people are calling him the Phantom Warrior now.

Arietta: And you found him. How?

Dist: To tell the truth, I don't even know if he's the real one, after all, it is quite possible that some random mercenary would want to pose as him just so they can raise their price.

Sync: And you let that random someone trick you into hiring him.

Dist: Hey! His appearance matched some of the rumors flying around so there might be a chance he's the real one.

Arietta: Stop being mean to everyone, Sync!

Sync: What? Can't stand anyone that's not as gentle as your precious Ion?

Arietta: Stop that you... (Sync and Arietta left the scene and continued arguing)

Dist: (Sigh) Why can't Largo be the one that came instead? Now I have to baby-sit two kids and keep them apart before their arguing becomes an all-out battle and tears the whole place down.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I have read several fics before about people being thrust into a new environment without any means to communicate with others. I always liked how they portrait the interactions between them. But then I don't think I have seen any fics in the crossover section of TOS, TOA and TOV that has a language problem, though I may be wrong and fics that mentioned problems like that do exist.

When I first planned out this fic, I never intended to have Lloyd not being able to communicate with others. But then when I started to write this chapter, I remembered about mentioning in Fonic Interruption that Kratos only knew their language and managed to communicate with the others because the common language used in Auldrant had a 50% similarities to the Angelic language (mentioned in FI Ch. 3 & 22). And Lloyd would never bother to learn another language, maybe except for the one spoken by dwarves due to Dirk. Anyway, Lloyd still had a means to communicate with the others through reading. As for why he could understand the written part of the language... that's a secret for now ^^

_Uploaded on 29 June 2013._


	5. Missed Encounter

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_; Character reading

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 4: Missed Encounter**

It's the fifth day after Luke's party of six human plus a cheagle successfully rescued the engineer from Arietta in Choral Castle. They had boarded the ship to Chesedonia three days ago and had finally arrived at the trading city. From here on, it would only take them another day and a half to finally get to Baticul. When they arrived at Chesedonia, Van had parted ways with them, saying that he needed to take Arietta back to Daath where the girl would be judged and punished for damaging Kimlascan properties in Kaitzur and kidnapping the engineer.

Since there's still time left before the ship to Baticul was ready, they decided to look at the data stored in the fon disc Guy acquired from Sync, thinking that it was something important to the Six God-Generals and would help them understand their true motives. Apparently in all of Chesedonia, only Astor, the head of the Chesedonia Merchant's Guild and leader of the city, had a fon machine that could analyse the fon disc and so here they were, in the large mansion of the richest man of the whole world.

"Oh, my. Fon Master Ion! If only you'd let me know you were coming. I'd have prepared a grand welcome for you." Astor exclaimed the moment he came out to greet them and spotted Ion.

"It's fine. We're trying to keep a low profile. Also, I have a favor I'd like to ask." Ion smiled and returned the greeting.

Astor placed his right hand over where his heart would be and bowed. "Name it. The Chesedonia Merchants' Guild is always at your service, Fon Master."

Guy stepped up to the man who was getting up from the bow. "We want to read the data from this fon disc." He raised the hand that was holding said disc and presented it to the man.

Astor nodded. "Leave it to me." He clapped his hands and a servant appeared next to him a while later. "You there. Analyse the fon disc and deliver the results to him."

"Yes, sir." The man bowed and took the fon disc from Guy.

"Thank you." Guy said.

"Ion, you know this guy?" Luke asked.

The question was directed to the Fon Master, but it was the Guild Master that answered. "It's thanks to the Fon Master that we were able to establish this place of exchange on the border."

"Although it's a Fon Master that helps create this place, it was actually Fon Master Evenos, my predecessor, not me." Ion explained.

"You are too modest, Fon Master Ion, you have also helped a lot since you became Fon Master. If I remember correctly, you were born here, right?"

"Heh, even I don't know that part, is that true, Ion?" Anise asked, this was the first time she had heard of anything about Ion's past even though she had been his Fon Master Guardian for two years already.

There was a slight pause before Ion nodded. "Yes, I was taken to the Order of Lorelei when I was five to start my Fon Master training."

Jade narrowed his eyes at Ion. The others might not have noticed it, but the slight hesitation Ion showed was enough to add to the evidence that would proof his suspicion about the Fon Master ever since they rested in the inn in St. Binah because Ion was too tired.

Before anyone could say anything else, they saw the servant returning. "I'm sorry, there seems to be some error on the fon disc analyzing machine. I apologize for the inconvenience but please wait for a bit longer."

"An error? What's the problem with the machine?" Guy asked.

"I'm sorry, but we aren't sure of it yet. We are currently looking into it, hopefully it would be fixed soon." The servant replied before once again leaving the room.

Luke sighed. "Are you kidding? So we have to wait for an indefinite amount of time here..."

"Stop whining. It's not as if it's anyone's fault." Tear pointed out.

"Humph." Luke turned his head away from the female Oracle Knight that was always telling him this and that.

"Say, how about you go to the city and do some sightseeing, Luke? You've never been outside and who knows how long it will be till you have another chance to come?" Guy cut in with the suggestion he just came up, not wanting his young master to start another argument with Tear.

"Why don't you do a little shopping while you are at it too? Chesedonia's the trade capital of the world. There's bound to be something lying around that would interest you." Astor added.

"That's a good idea! Master! Mieu also wants to see this city!" Mieu chimed.

"Shut up! Thing!" Luke barked to the blue cheagle and turned to Guy. "Though you have a point here, I will take a walk then." He causally turned to the others. "What about you guys?"

"I am staying here." Tear said.

"No one asked you." Luke rebutted.

"I for one want to see the fon disc analyzing machine, is that alright?" Ever the peacemaker, Guy cut in again before another argument could break out.

"Yes." Astor replied and gestured for another servant. "Take him to where the fon disc analyzing machine is."

The servant turned to Guy. "Please follow me."

"Thank you. I will see you guys later~" Guy followed the servant and left the room while humming happily.

"What's with him?" Anise asked, curious to the weird behavior of the normally composed and also a bit funny swordsman.

"Guy's a fanatic when it comes to fontech and fon machines." Luke replied.

"Someone with an unhealthy obsession with fontech and fon machines... that sure brings back some unfavorable memories." Jade said as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Hm? Anyway, what are you going to do, Jade?" Luke asked the eldest member of their group.

"An old man like me isn't suited to walk for so long, I will wait here with Tear."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Old my ass." He turned to Ion and Anise. "What about the two of you?"

"I want to come with you, but..." She trailed off and glanced at Ion.

"Fon Master, why don't you also take a walk in the city? It's your hometown after all." Astor suggested.

Ion nodded. "Right. I'll go with you then."

"Hurray! The four of us will go shopping!" Anise exclaimed.

They - Luke, Anise, Ion and Mieu - left Astor's mansion after they had come up with a meeting time and place should the analysed data be ready before they finished their sightseeing in the city. They had spent the next two hours randomly walking around and looking at the different shops and the products offered by them. It was approaching the time when they should meet up with the rest of the party when a woman walked purposefully towards them and draped herself onto Luke.

"Oh my, what's a fine gentleman like you doing in a place like this." She cooed and placed a hand on the Kimlascan noble's chest.

Luke blinked at the aggressive woman. "Huh? Wh- what do you want?"

"Come on. You have such a pretty face. Don't ruin it by frowning like that."

Anise had a fake surprise look on her face as she took in the woman's appearance. "Oh no! Some old lady is after my Luke!"

The 'old lady' removed her hand from Luke and glanced at the young Fon Master Guardian as if only just realizing the presence of the girl. "Oh my, pardon me, little girl. I didn't mean to interfere. I'll be on my way." She started to walk off but her path was blocked by a man. "Now what would it be that a handsome man like you want with me?" She winked at the newcomer.

The man didn't say anything as he frowned and placed a hand in front of him as if asking the other to give something to him.

The woman rolled her eyes. "Look, mister, I'm not some charity, now go away-" She was cut off when the man suddenly made a move at her.

"Unhand me this instance!"

"Wh- what are you doing!?" Ion asked, although they had already started to walk away after the woman stopped harassing Luke and after Anise muttered some curses at the woman under her breath, the moment they heard the shout, they turned around and saw the man had pinned woman's arms behind her back.

"Boss!" Two voice shouted and moments later a tall and slim man with a funny hat that had a rat on it and a short and fat man with long beard were standing near where the woman was being held.

"Wh- what?" Luke blinked at the man who was holding the woman. The man looked at Luke in the eyes and pointed to him with his free hand.

Luke pointed to himself. "Me? Wh- what do you want with me?"

The man furrowed his brow and started tracing something like a sphere in the air. He pointed at Luke again then at the woman after he finished drawing whatever it was he was trying to draw.

Anise tilted her head to the side as she tried to understand what the apparently mute man was trying to tell them. She suddenly whipped her head to Luke. "I think he's trying to tell us that that old lady stole something from you!"

Luke blinked at Anise's deduction. "Huh?" He started checking his belongings. "Hey! My wallet's gone!"

Anise stomped over to the thief. "How dare you try to steal from my Luke!"

"Tch. So I see luck is on your side." The woman tried to twist her arm to get away from the man who was holding her but found that his grip was too tight for her to do anything. "Fine. The wallet is in my pocket near my waist." She sneered.

Anise walked up and started searching for said pocket. "I've got it!" She exclaimed and held up Luke's wallet.

"Now you have got what you want, release me!"

The man loosened his grip and Noir quickly performed a somersault. The man back stepped and narrowly avoided the thief's foot from connecting with his jaw. But the attack was too sudden that he lost his footing and dropped to the ground on his bottom.

"York! Urushi! We're outta here!" The woman shouted to the two men that had been standing near her watching the whole exchange. The tall and slim man pulled out a sphere from his pocket and threw it to the ground. The sphere exploded when it touched the ground creating a cloud of smoke that enveloped them.

Luke and the others started coughing and waved their hands around in an attempt to clear the smoke. The smoke dispersed after a while and the female thief and her two lackeys were nowhere to be seen.

"Damn those thieves!" Luke snarled.

Ion walked up to the man that was still sitting on the ground and extended his hand to him. "Are you alright?"

The man blinked at Ion's hand and a grin broke out on his face. He placed his hand onto Ion's and stood up with the Fon Master's help.

Luke looked at the man that just prevented him from losing his money and took in his appearance. The man looked to be in his early twenties, maybe a bit older than Guy. He had brown spiky hair that somehow defied gravity and stood up in the air, some of the strands were falling down framing his face, and had equally brown eyes. He was wearing a dull red shirt with white buttons that looked to have seen better days and matching gloves and boots, though thankfully his pants were not red again but grey.

Luke walked up to the strangely dressed man. "Hey, thanks for that."

The man frowned and tilted his head. He pointed at his ears and his throat, after that he crossed his arms in front of him in a big cross.

Luke blinked. "What?"

"I think he's mute and deaf." Anise said, she had already guessed the mute part when the man was wildly gesturing at them about the stolen wallet, but deaf too? She looked at the man sadly as she thought of how hard this man's life must be to be unable to hear and talk.

Luke gasped. He knew what that meant, but this is the first time he came across someone that was mute or deaf, and now this man that just helped him was suffering from both. He then frowned, not knowing how to deal with someone that couldn't even hear him.

"Master, does that mean he can't speak or hear?" Mieu asked with a sad voice.

Ion seemed to have sensed the other's discomfort and knew that they were having trouble thinking of ways to communicate with the brunette and lightly touched the man's arm. The man turned to look at Ion at the touch and saw the boy bowing his head towards him to thank him. The man widened his eyes at the gesture and bowed stiffly at him, apparently embarrassed at the type of thanks he's receiving. Both Luke and Anise chuckled at the reaction of the man. After the exchange, the man had this embarrassed look on his face and his face started flushing red, starting from his neck. He rubbed the back of his neck with his gloved hand and Luke noticed a blue stone was embedded onto the back of it.

Ion smiled at the flushed man and pointed to his chin. The man tilted his head at Ion, trying to understand what the Fon Master was trying to convey to him. He widened his eyes and grinned at the boy, finally understanding that the boy was asking him if his chin was hurting, thinking that they must have thought the thief's uppercut kick had hit and that's why he stumbled backwards and finally landed on his bottom. He pointed at his chin and started shaking his head. He then went to use his hands to imitate what had been happening before to let the others know that the attack hadn't hit and-

"Argh!" Ion and the man turned to the direction where the voice came from and saw Luke clutching his head with both hands.

"Luke!" Anise placed a hand on Luke's back, she knew it was futile, but it still didn't stop her from wanting to do something to smooth away his headache.

"Master!" Mieu shouted worriedly as he looked at Luke's face that was contorted in pain.

"Luke!" Anise looked up and saw Guy, Tear and Jade coming their way. She also noticed a small folder in the blond servant's hand and knew that they had gotten the analysed data of the fon disc.

Guy was rushing over to his young master when he heard Tear's shout. "Look out!" He didn't have the time to react before a man he had never seen before pushed him to the ground. He heard a loud clang and looked up just in time to see Sync jumping backwards from the man that just pushed him out of the way with two strangely looking swords in his hands.

The green haired God-General skidded to a stop several meters away with a hand touching the ground. "Hand those over!"

"We shouldn't cause a scene here. We heard that the ship is ready. To the ship!" Jade ordered just as Sync was standing up straight.

The others started escaping but Guy just stay glued to Luke's side. "But Luke can't walk yet!"

He tried to help his young master to at least stand up but it was just taking too long. Then he saw the man who just saved him from Sync picked up Luke and placed him on his back in a piggy back ride.

"Hey! What are you-"

"You're not getting away!" Sync dashed towards where Guy, Luke and the mysterious man were and Guy saw the man started running towards the direction the others escaped to. Knowing that it wasn't the time for question, Guy fell in steps after the man who was still running at a very fast speed even with Luke on his back.

However, he didn't manage to run very far when Sync landed a kick on him. He grunted from the pain and unsheathed his sword to block the fist that was coming towards him. They exchanged several more blows before they both landed a hit on the other at the same time. Guy had taken a punch from the masked God-General on the arm while Sync had the cloth near his shoulder guard torn and blood started oozing out from the not-so-shallow wound on his shoulder. Before Sync could recover from the attack, Guy had already begun running at full speed in the direction the others had disappeared to.

The party of eight made a beeline towards the port where a Kimlascan soldier was standing guard in front of the now open gate that led to the ship. He was confused at the sight of the others running as if being chased by someone and that of the red haired noble being carried on another man's back with a hand clutching his head. However, confused as he was, he saluted as the party came closer.

"Master Luke, departure preparations are complete." He informed the party.

"Get this ship moving! Now! Ouch..." Luke said from his position on the back of the brunette, all the while still clutching his head with his hand.

"Excuse me?" The soldier asked, now thoroughly confused and didn't bother to hide it.

"We're being chased! Hurry!" Guy shouted in his young master's stead.

Without checking to see if the soldier was going to follow their words or not, the party ran past the gate and continued towards the ship. They heard the soldier shout loudly over to the ship to let them know to depart and saw the sailors started getting to work. They were just in time to get onto the ship before the bridge that connected the ship and the ground was lifted up and the ship started sailing away from Chesedonia.

"Whew. That was close." Luke commented once they boarded the ship, his headache had just gone away and he was feeling much better now.

"Um, thanks, you can let me down, I am fine now." He told the man carrying him. There was no reaction and only then did he remember that the man couldn't hear him. He lightly shook the man's shoulder, hoping that it was enough to let him know he could let him down now.

The man turned his head to glance at Luke who was looking at him with a slightly flushed face. He let the boy get down from his back.

Guy came up to them and grinned at the man. "Thanks for that." The man first looked confused at Guy before returning Guy's grin with his own grin and nodded.

The blond swordsman then noticed a tear on the man's shirt somewhere on his arm and its surrounding was soaked with blood. Guy realized that he must have gotten it from Sync when he pushed him out of the way. "Hey, you are hurt." He said and pointed at the torn sleeves.

The man tilted his head at Guy before slowly following his finger and saw what Guy was pointing at.

"He can't hear us." Anise said.

"What do you mean?" Tear turned to look at the young Fon Master Guardian. Not only her, Guy also turned around and looked at the girl questioningly. Jade, though also curious and a bit suspicious of this newcomer that just saved them without even asking what was going on, just stayed where he had been standing since they boarded the ship and glanced at their rescuer with an uninterested look.

"Well, you see..." Anise started recounting their encounter with the female thief, how this man helped them got back the stolen wallet, how they tried to communicate with this deaf and mute man and how Luke suddenly had another headache.

"... and that's when you guys showed up." She concluded.

"What should we do with him then?" Guy asked.

"The most obvious choice is to return him to Chesedonia, but then..." Tear trailed off.

"Hey, we could just take him to Baticul with us and see if father could do something to help him." Luke suggested, wanting to help the one that just saved him twice.

"Luke is such a gentleman~" Anise said with her trademark singsong voice and hugged Luke.

"Our current technology can't help deaf man regain their hearing nor is it able to help the mute speak again." Tear pointed out.

"I know that!" Luke paused in trying to get Anise away from him and sneered at Tear. "I was just saying that my father can help him get back to Chesedonia and maybe also reward him for helping me."

"That's our only option anyway. We can't return to Chesedonia now." Jade shrugged. "I'll check with the staffs about our rooms." He walked away from the party.

* * *

_The trail stopped here._ Kratos thought and looked around the city, trying to pinpoint where the man that emitted the mana was.

The moment he left Derris Kharlan and got to Tataroo Valley, he started his search. However, though the mana that lingered in the surrounding was quite strong, he found two thin mana trails leading away from the valley and deduced that the man had left and that the stronger than normal mana was only due to the man's prolonged stay in the valley. He had found evidence of someone camping in the forest area and it was from those evidence that he knew it was indeed a man, or maybe a woman, that gave off the mana signature.

He had looked around the camp site and noticed the broken tree branches nearby that suggested that the man had been doing some training. From the shape and extent of the damage he saw, he deduced that the man was wielding a sword and wasn't very skilled. When he came across the two thin mana trails that led to opposite directions at the entrance of Tataroo Valley, he didn't have to think long before taking the path that led to Chesedonia.

He knew from Dist before he went to the Radiation Gate that Rotelro Bridge, the one and only bridge connecting the continents of Padamiya and Rugnica, was destroyed. So he supposed whoever it was he was after had first chosen to go the east then discovered that it was a dead end and returned here to go along the other path to the trading city. And the thicker mana he felt leading to the now destroyed Rotelro Bridge that suggested double tracking further proofed his deduction.

_No. The trail didn't stop, just that he had lingered here for quite some time._ Kratos concluded after he had stretched out his senses and discovered that whoever that emitted mana was not in this area anymore.

_So he has continued on to the desert? Or has he taken a ship?_

If he had taken a ship, then it would be difficult for Kratos to track him down. There were ships going to every cities in Auldrant from Chesedonia. He could continue following the mana trail, but the trail was very weak. In fact, if not for whoever he's after having to double back to Tataroo Valley to take another path and left behind a comparatively thicker mana trail, he wouldn't even know that he had left Tataroo Valley. It also didn't help that the mana was so weak that the detectors on Derris Kharlan wasn't able to pick it up anymore after it's initial appearance. If Kratos hadn't went to Tataroo Valley to see for himself that someone emitting mana had indeed stayed in the valley for an extended amount of time, he would have thought that Dist had made a mistake and instead of 'upgrading' the system, he had broken it.

Kratos concentrated very hard and tried to follow the near non-existing mana trail, retracing each and every step the man had taken while in this city. The most he had come across had led him to the local library. _So another being that decided to learn more about this world through the library like I did when I first came._

He also felt many tracks leading back to the outside of the city, but that was where he came from so he assumed the man had just been going out of the city to maybe do some errands before returning. He followed the trail and inwardly cursed his luck as he realized the trail was leading him to the port. At least the port was on the Kimlascan side so he could rule out Kaitzur, but then there are still many cities he could have gone to.

However, as he got closer to the port, his enhanced hearing picked up two voices, one very familiar and the other not so familiar, but he still knew who it was. _What are they doing here?_

He quickly hid himself in one of the alleys when he heard and saw Sync the Tempest, the owner of the not so familiar voice, turning around and started heading towards his direction.

"I marked the one named Guy and that newcomer with a curse slot. Though it wasn't my original intention to mark the both of them, I can make them my puppet at any time. As for you, make sure you properly dispose of those documents from the fomicry project." Sync said as he continued walking away from his fellow God-General.

"Who do you think you are to talk like that to me? Just you wait! I'm putting this down in my revenge journal!" Dist shouted at the back to the retreating green haired boy.

Kratos sighed at the scientist's words. This side of the man seemed to have remained the same, or maybe it had gotten worse, even after all these years. He waited till Sync disappeared from his line of sight and walked up to the man who was about to take off with that flying chair of his. "Dist."

The man in question turned around at his name. "Kratos! What are you doing here? How's the conversion?"

"It's a success, the Rune Crest is now in Welgaia. We can start the next step whenever you are ready. As for your first question, the detectors picked up an abnormality and I am here to check it out." Kratos replied.

"An abnormality?"

Kratos nodded but didn't elaborate on it. "Why are you and Sync here?"

"Ah, right!" Dist seemed to have remembered something and looked at the mercenary in the eyes. "Kratos, you need to find Asch before he kills himself!"

Kratos raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in topic. "Asch? What happened"

Dist opened his mouth but then closed it again, as if weighing the pros and cons of telling Kratos what he needed to know. "Argh! Fine. It isn't like a little delay would make any difference."

"If you are in a hurry, I can wait till you finish what you have to do first."

Dist shook his head. "No, Asch takes priority." Then he launched into a long and detailed description on what had transpired during Kratos' stay in the Radiation Gate.

"You are going after the ferry that just departed?" Kratos asked after Dist finished recounting his and Asch's actions.

"Yes."

Kratos thought about it. The mana lingering here seemed to be comparatively stronger, so there might be a chance that whoever it was that gave off the mana signature would be on the ferry. Though the probability was only fifty percent, it didn't hurt to try.

"Kratos?" Dist asked when he noticed the man seemed to be deep in thought.

"It's about the abnormality I mentioned just now."

* * *

"Luke, why did you bring him over?" Tear asked when she saw the red haired noble had entered the room followed by the mysterious twin swordsman that had followed them onto the ship.

"It can't be helped! He was standing on the bridge looking back at Chesedonia weirdly. I couldn't just leave him when we involved him into our affairs, he has a right to at least know what's going on." Luke refuted.

"Wah~ Luke is so kind!" "Master is so kind!" Anise and Mieu chorused at the same time.

"Oh my, I didn't know you are capable of such kindness, my apologies for ever doubting you, Luke." Jade said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"Stop that, it's creepy when you do that." Luke said and pointedly ignored the Malkuthian soldier. He led his companion to two of the remaining seats in the room, where they both sat down.

"I suppose there's no harm in it, but how are we going to communicate with him? I don't know any sign language. Do any of you know?" Tear asked.

Everyone except Jade shook their heads, though Jade himself didn't make any move from his position next to the wall.

"I know a way to do it without the sign language." Guy pushed himself away from the wall he had been leaning against and approached the desk in the middle of the room. He grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and started writing on it.

"Oh hey, good thinking, Guy." Luke gave a thumb up to his best friend aka servant.

Guy raised the piece of paper to the brunette's eye level after he finished writing.

Guy Cecil. He pointed at the words then pointed to himself. Luke fon Fabre. He pointed to the second name and pointed to Luke. He repeated the process five more times, each pointing to a different name and person, and finished introducing all of them, including Mieu.

What's your name? He pointed at the question below all the names.

The man looked a bit troubled for a short instance before gingerly taking the pen and paper Ion was offering him. Everyone's attention was on him as he wrote down his name onto the sheet very slowly.

"Lloyd... Irving... Aurion... wait, Aurion!?" Anise exclaimed, surprised at the name.

"Huh? Anise, you know him?" Luke looked curiously at the girl, then he noticed that everyone in the room, except Jade, was looking at him weirdly.

"What?" Luke said, annoyed once again at not knowing something that apparently the others knew.

Guy laughed a bit. "Right, you wouldn't have known about the Phantom Warrior."

Luke blinked. "Phantom Warrior?"

"It's only a rumor It's about a travelling mercenary with the name Kratos Aurion showing up during the last war and rescuing a lot of people. The reason he's dubbed the Phantom Warrior is because no one has found any trace of him since then." Tear explained.

Luke looked back at the man who now known to be Lloyd. "And you are related to him?"

Lloyd just stared at Luke with a confused expression. "Really, do you expect him to respond to your question?" Jade commented. "Your short term memory never ceases to amaze me."

Luke flushed and snarled at Jade. "No one asked for your opinion!"

"Here." Guy said and raised the piece of paper again, now with a new question.

Are you related to Kratos Aurion?

Lloyd jumped out of his seat once he finished reading the question. His eyes bulged as he opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, and closed it again. The females in the room gasped while the males, except Jade again, stared at him with surprise as they saw tears sliding down the twin swordsman's cheek. Ion gently placed a hand onto the slightly trembling man's arm. He didn't know what caused this reaction, but he knew he had to calm the man that had been breathing faster and faster since he saw the question.

Lloyd closed his eyes and started inhaling and exhaling slowly. He repeated the process a few times and opened his eyes again. He directed his gaze at the owner of the hand that was offering him the comforting touch. He nodded at the Fon Master with a small smile to let him know that he's fine now. He sat down again and instead of writing down his answer on the paper, he pointed to the question, pointed back to himself and nodded.

"Eh! So the rumor is true!?" Anise exclaimed, breaking the tense atmosphere that had fallen over them when Lloyd jumped out of his seat.

Tear looked at the red clad swordsman. "It might just be someone with the same name... and we also don't know if the rumor is accurate."

Luke frowned at the words of the girls, didn't they want to know the cause of Lloyd's violent reaction? He grabbed the paper and wrote another question on it.

Did he do something to you?

Lloyd blinked at the question. His face flushed red and he started scratching his cheek, realizing how it must have looked to the others when he suddenly shot up and started crying. Really, although that question took him off guard, he shouldn't have been that surprise when he felt the familiar mana signature coming from Chesedonia. Granted, that mana signature was so weak that Lloyd had thought he had only imagined it, unlike the one he felt the other day from the direction of Kaitzur.

Lloyd shook his head to let the boy beside him know that that wasn't the case. He furrowed his brows, as if in deep concentration, and started writing in that agonizing slow pace of his again. After a very long time, he finally stopped and showed Luke and the others what he had written.

Where is he?

Guy shook his head at the question and started writing again.

We don't know, we only know of him because of his heroic deed in the last war.

Lloyd deflated at the reply. Then he took the paper out of Guy's grasp. He traced the words with his fingers and reread the two short sentences word by word. After rereading it at least three times, he let his fingers rest on the words 'heroic deed' and smiled. Luke looked at Lloyd questioningly and was about to write another question to him when the ship started shaking.

"Wha- what happened!?" Luke asked from his position on the ground, having fallen down from the chair due to the shaking.

Jade exited the room and stopped one of the soldiers running towards the bridge. "What happened?"

"It's an emergency! A large number of monsters and an unidentified fontech signature are approaching from Chesedon-" The soldier didn't manage to finish his sentence as Jade suddenly pushed him aside, but he was still not fast enough to prevent the man that was creeping up at them from injuring the soldier. He quickly whipped out his spear and blocked another attack that was aimed at him.

Tear also exited the room and immediately recognized the clothes the man Jade was engaged in was wearing as the uniform of the Oracle Knights."Oh no! They're here!"

Guy burst out from the room with his katana already out and killed the Oracle Knight who was still preoccupied with Jade and couldn't block the slash by the blond swordsman.

Tear helped the soldier Jade just pushed away up from the ground and started healing him. "Can we assume that their goal is to stop Ion and the letter from reaching Kimlasca?"

Guy waved his katana around to rid it of the man's blood. "You don't suppose they'd try to just sink the whole ship, do you?"

Mieu started jumping up and down at the mention of the ship sinking. "Master, what do we do!? I can't swim..."

Annoyed at the high pitch whining of the cheagle, Luke kicked him away. "Shut up and drown!"

"But if they intended to sink us, they wouldn't come storming aboard." Jade said as he analysed the situation.

"Then they're trying to take over the ship!" Anise cried out as she exited the room, followed by Lloyd and Ion.

Guy sighed. "So then I guess we have to secure the bridge before they do, huh?"

"Exactly." Jade replied.

Luke also sighed. "Why do those Oracle guys want to start a war so badly? What a pain..."

Jade shrugged. "Who knows?"

"Colonel, why do you look so relaxed? At sea, there's nowhere to run... I bet there are more coming just to flush us out if we don't hurry."

"It's just your imagination. As you said, we ought to hurry to the bridge before things get worse." Jade turned to Ion. "It's better if you wait in the cabin while we take care of this." Ion nodded. He took the injured man from Tear and led him back to the room just as others started running towards the staircase that would take them to the bridge.

"These meticulously planned, yet silly attacks remind me of-" Jade lightly shook his head. "Well, I just hope my premonition turns out to be groundless."

He was about to go after the others but stopped in the last minute. He looked at their latest party member who was looking at the corpse of the Oracle Knight with an unreadable expression. Lloyd raised his head to look at where the others had run off to and Jade saw the eyes of an experienced warrior as the twin swordsman took off and followed the party to the bridge.

* * *

**~ Skit: Family traits ~**

Mieu: Amazing! We were rescued by someone related to the Phantom Warrior.

Luke: Yeah right, I doubt this Phantom Warrior is any better than Master Van.

Guy: But still, to think that Lloyd is related to him... now I am starting to think that the rumors about the Phantom Warrior aren't as far-fetched as I first thought.

Luke: Huh? What do you mean?

Tear: Although he is still famous, the rumors had died down last year and some people are now doubting his existence.

Luke: Why?

Ion: It's because people can't find any trace of him.

Anise: Guy, are you saying that you are one of those thinking that the rumor is false?

Guy: Not really, I just find it hard to imagine someone willing to risk their lives to save soldiers on both sides. Though Princess Natalia is a die hard believer of the Phantom Warrior for some reason.

Luke: It's so like her to believe in something like a knight in shining armor.

Ion: I'm sure there's another reason for that, I have seen Princess Natalia before and I don't think she's one to just believe a rumor.

Guy: Who knows?

Luke: Hey Guy, you were saying you find it hard to imagine someone saving soldiers of both sides, so what changed?

Jade: I am also curious to that. I doubt it's simply because of a confirmed existence of someone with the name Kratos Aurion from a person that claimed to be his relative.

Guy: Well, it's difficult to explain... but I guess you can say that it's because he took a direct hit from Sync for me.

Luke: Huh? How is that related to this?

Tear: I think what Guy is trying to say is that if Lloyd himself is someone who would willingly risk his life for a complete stranger, then it doesn't seem that far-fetched for someone that is related to him to do something similar.

Ion: I see. You are talking about family traits.

Jade: No. Family traits are genetic likeness. We are talking about behavioral likeness here, which can't be inherited. I think the closer explanation is that they were raised in similar environments.

Anise: (sigh) Give it to the Colonel to turn this into a science lecture.

Luke: (stared at Tear)

Tear: What?

Luke: Now I understand why you are nothing like Master Van, the two of you didn't grow up together, right?

Tear: Who knows? But I am glad I didn't turn out to be like him.

Luke: What are you saying!? Master Van is-

Jade: As entertaining as it is to listen to your lovers' quarrel, we have to hurry to the bridge.

Luke/Tear: We are not! (they looked at each other as they realized that they were saying the same words at the same time then turned away from each other)

Guy: Wow, they are even synced.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**patrick the almighty observer **- Thanks for noticing the mistake, I have corrected it the moment I saw your review ^^

Lloyd finally joined the group. So from now on there won't be as much skipping around as before, though I will still skip over to the other side (Kratos, Asch, Dist) at times to give you the bigger picture of what's going on.

_Uploaded on 5 July 2013._


	6. Language Barrier

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_; Character reading; _"Lloyd's language"_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 5: Language Barrier**

Luke thrust his fist forward, hitting the stomach of the soldier before him temporarily stunning his movement. "Raging Blast!" Fonons gathered at his fist before exploding, blowing the man away to where Guy was waiting with his sword sheathed and in a position to draw the sword out in a moment's notice.

"Void Tempest!" The blond swordsman quickly drew the blade out, the motion so quick that wind was generated from the arc drawn out by the katana and slashed at his enemy, breaking the armor and inflicting a fatal wound across the man's stomach.

"Is this ever going to end?" Luke cried out in frustration. This was the tenth group of Oracle Knights they had come across since they left the cabin where Ion was currently staying with the injured Kimlascan soldier, and that was nearly an hour ago.

"We need to find their leader to end this." Tear replied. "Nocturnal Light!" She threw three daggers towards the Oracle Knight several meters away from her.

The soldier blocked the flying knives with his sword and rushed at Tear. Tear brought up her staff and was ready to defend whatever attack the man was going to deal to her. However, the attack never came as the man was hit by Lloyd's attack and lost consciousness as the twin swordsman dived towards the soldier at a great speed from mid-air. That was the last Oracle Knight of this group.

"Thanks." Tear knew the twin swordsman couldn't hear her, but it was drilled into her to thanks other whenever appropriate. It didn't matter that the man wouldn't be able to hear it, it was just instinct. However, she gathered that Lloyd must have seen her mouth move out of the corner of his eye when he nodded.

"Where the heck is their leader? We have already checked out the bridge and looked everywhere on the deck. I just want to hurry up and finish this." Luke said and did another sweep with his eyes around the same place they had been in since fifteen minutes ago.

"Ah, I see, so the snake and his lackeys finally decided to come out of their hiding." Luke heard a voice coming from above and looked up to see a man sitting on a flying chair.

"Dist the Reaper!" Anise cried out.

Dist's eyebrow ticked and he gripped at the handle of his chair tightly. "Rose! I have told you time and again that it's Rose! Dist the-"

"Why, if it isn't Dist the Runny?" Jade said.

"Stop mocking me, you savages!" Dist angrily pointed an accusing finger in their general direction, so they couldn't really tell who he was pointing at.

"You know him?" Luke asked Anise.

Anise cocked her head to the side. "Well, we are both Oracle Knights, so..." she trailed off and turned to look at Jade, "but why do you know him, Colonel?" Jade just shrugged and didn't say anything.

Luke then remembered their encounter with this same God-General in St. Binah – well, not really, seeing as they only heard his voice – and how Jade seemed to know the man judging from the conversation between him and Elder McGovern and was about to ask more when he suddenly heard Dist gasped.

He turned to the man and saw him pointing at them again, but this time it wasn't just in their general direction. It was clear that Dist was pointing at their newest member, Lloyd. They also noticed that the same hand that was pointing at Lloyd was holding onto something that was flashing and making a beeping sound.

"You. Who are you?" Dist demanded.

Lloyd stared at the man, he didn't understand what he was saying and was confused why this man who he supposed was the leader of their enemy was singling him out like this. Especially when they have never met before. But then the thing that the man was holding felt fami-

"I'm talking to you! Are you deaf!?" Dist shouted.

"Yes, he's deaf." Anise said.

Dist blinked at Anise's words, he didn't expect anyone to answer his rhetorical question, and with an affirmative no less. "Wh- what?" He had a dumbfound expression on his face as he stared at one of his only friends in the Oracle. "He's deaf?"

Anise nodded. "Yes, and mute too."

"Hey, is it alright to chat with the leader of the enemy like they are friends?" Luke whispered to Guy, the two of them were standing some distance away from Jade and Anise.

"Not sure. But it seems he's friends with both Anise and Jade-"

"Now there, it's rude to make disgusting assumption like that behind people's back." Jade said from his position between the two swordsmen. Luke and Guy let out a 'eep' and jumped away when they saw that Jade had somehow heard their conversation and joined in.

"Can you focus? We don't know when he's going to strike!" Tear snapped at the three male members of their party.

"Luke, I told you it's not nice to do something like that, now Tear is angry at us." Jade said.

"What!? How is that my fault!?" Luke growled.

"Could it be...? But what's the possibility for that..." They turned their attention back to the God-General who hadn't moved from his previous position at all.

"Anise, who is he?" Dist asked.

Anise huffed and crossed her arms before her. "Why do you think I am telling you anything when you are obviously our enemy?"

"Why you- fine!" He flew over to where Lloyd was. But before he could get too close, he had to manoeuvre his chair to a different direction and narrowly dodged a Thunder Blade that was thrown his way by none other than Jade. "Hey! What are you doing!? Can't you see I am trying to have a civilized conversation?" Dist shouted at Jade.

Jade shrugged. "Not my concern. You are our enemy after all."

"What!? You... Grrr! You never play fair! I never understand how I can once count you amongst my friends!" Dist snarled at the unconcerned man and pointed angrily at him.

"Now just who are you talking about? It's rude to accuse someone of something they never did." Jade said.

"You! Jade! The ex-friend of me! The beautiful genius Dist!"

"Which Jades is that? I don't know any Jades with such poor taste in friends. Though I guess I have to applaud him for finally getting rid of such a poor excuse for a friend."

"Wha-" Dist paused and closed his eyes. He counted to five and opened them again, feeling considerably calmer than before. "Enough of this. Now, hand over the fon disc data!"

"You mean this?" Jade was a bit surprised at the reaction, or lack thereof, but he didn't show any of it and held up the folder with the analysed data of the fon disc into the air without missing a beat, as if taunting the other to come and grab it.

Dist narrowed his eyes at Jade before letting out a defeated sigh. "If you are giving it up that easily, then I guess I am too late and you have already memorised their contents. And I doubt we could keep it a secret for long at the rate things are going."

Jade lowered the folder and put it back into his pocket. _What's this? This is not his normal behavior In fact, apart from the ranting, he doesn't feel like the man I know._ He thought as he looked at the man with an unreadable expression.

Dist saw some other Oracle Knights closing in on them from and frowned. "I don't really want to do this and intentionally destroy my creation... but otherwise it would look suspicious." He raised his right hand up. "Second Division! Retreat! The mission has failed and I will take care of them with my Kaiser Dist R!" Dist ordered the Oracle Knights that were approaching. The soldiers saluted and left.

Anise opened her mouth to ask what he meant by that but was cut off when Dist brought his hand down and something very heavy dropped onto the deck causing the whole ship to shake violently. "Ah!" Anise shouted and lost her footing due to the shaking. But before her bottom hit the floor, Lloyd was already behind her and saved her from falling.

"Thanks Lloyd." Lloyd nodded while staring before them, at the thing that just dropped onto the deck.

Anise followed Lloyd's gaze and saw a giant robot separating them and Dist. The robot was approximately five meters tall and had a somewhat spherical body. It had two arms, one wielding something like a drill and the other a machine gun.

The wheels under its two short legs started rotating and it dashed forward at where Luke, Guy and Jade were. They jumped away. The robot stopped its advance before it could crash to the rails of the ship and turned around. Both Luke and Guy unsheathed their swords and started slashing at the robot. However, the metal was too hard for their blade to cut through and they were repelled back.

"Keep it occupied while Tear and I cast our artes!" Jade shouted.

"Right!" Anise exclaimed and threw her doll, Tokunaga, to the ground and it suddenly started enlarging. She jumped onto the back of the doll, which was now even taller than Jade, and charged over to where Luke and Guy were giving their best to keep the robot away from the spell casters.

Dist sighed when he saw the Fon Master Guardian joined the battle riding on the enlarged Tokunaga. "As much as I want to see how my two creations fare against each other..."

He saw that the man the mana detector he had taken with him because of what Kratos said reacted to was also rushing towards the battlefield and quickly flew to intercept him. What he didn't expect was the man suddenly turned to him and started attacking him when he came too close. He had to jump off his chair to dodge the attack. He knew he would be attacked, seeing as he was their enemy and all, but he didn't think the man would attack an unarmed person, unlike a certain four eyed snake.

"Wait! Stop! I am only going to talk!" He continued backing away from the twin swordsman who was still attacking him, though he noticed that the attacks weren't aiming to kill. _Is he trying to capture me and have me stop Kaiser Dist R from attacking?_

"Time out! I said time- argh! Why do you have to be deaf!?" Dist cried out frustratingly. Then he recalled the man before him nodding at Anise's words even though he wasn't looking at her, as if he could hear her. _But then why? … wait, is it because... _Dist gathered a small amount of Third Fonons at his feet, where two fonic glyphs similar to the those Jade applied to his eyes for his Fonic Sight were, and dashed away from the twin swordsman with a sudden boost of speed.

Lloyd looked at the man that seemed to have just disappeared from before him and reappeared some distance away from him with confusion. He was about to give chase to the man so that he could have him stop his robot from attacking his new-found friends when when the man opened his mouth again. _"Who are you?" _

Lloyd paused and widened his eyes. It was the words that made him stop. Or more precisely, the language the man had spoken in.

Dist let out a shaky breath, inwardly congratulating him for making the correct guess. He had thought it weird that this man was deaf. He looked to be quite the experienced warrior, and it was nearly impossible for someone who couldn't even hear to accomplish such feats. Of course there were people that could pull that off, but that required years of practice and experience that he doubted this young man had, except if he was an angel and thus ageless, which he doubted, seeing as he didn't have wings and the only angel he knew that could hide their wings was Kratos. It seemed genuine that this man didn't know what he was talking about, but then he also seemed to be able to respond to sound.

Still, it was just a gamble when Dist tried to talk to him in that language. Dist only knew this language because he had been fiddling around the different gadgets and machines on Derris Kharlan and noticed that some of the words there were in a language he didn't know. Though to be fair, the language he did know, which Kratos told him was the angelic language, or simply Angelic, only bore a fifty percent similarity and he had had much difficulty just trying to read them in the beginning. How Kratos could adapt to their language and manage to carry out conversations with him and even read his words on his first day in this world eluded him.

He wasn't obliged to learn this new language, which he was told to be the common language used in Kratos' home world. Although some of the instruction manuals were written in it, there were always translation for it in Angelic. That's why he only knew the basics of it and had to concentrate hard just to remember how to phrase a simple sentence such as 'who are you'.

Lloyd stared at the man before him. This man had just asked him who he was in his own language. _But how is that possible? is it because someone in this planet do speak my language?_ He mentally shook his head to rid of this thought. Even if by some bizarre reason that his language was used in this world, it simply wasn't possible for this man to know that he was actually not deaf, as he was sure that's what the girl called Anise just told him, and also correctly guessed the language he spoke in.

He heard the man repeat his question and straightened himself, though his sword was still trained on him. It was then he recalled how this man had singled him out from the others before the battle started and the strange flashing and beeping thing in his hand that felt familiar- wait, that was...

"_That thing you just used, does it have mana?" _That wasn't the best question he could ask, but he didn't know where else to start.

The man furrowed his brows as if concentrating very hard to understand his words, which Lloyd supposed might just be the case here. _"Yes. Mana detector."_ The man took out the device.

Lloyd stared at the device. _A mana detector... yes, I can feel a very weak mana signature._ He looked at the man again and was about to answer his initial question and saw the man pointing at his left hand.

"_Is that a Cru_-" Dist was cut off when suddenly they both heard a huge explosion and turned their heads to see that Luke and the others had successfully destroyed the giant robot and Jade started using his Water-elemental Artes to put out the fire resulted by it.

"I know I have toned down the power, but I thought it could at least last a bit longer." Dist frowned and with another well controlled burst of speed, got back to where his chair was in just a split second and left.

Lloyd saw that the man was gone and was getting farther and farther away from the ship. He wanted to shout after him, to tell him to come back, but then he heard Luke calling him – he had remembered the pronunciation of his name when Anise read his writing aloud – and turned to the red haired teen who was running towards him.

"Lloyd, are you alright? That man didn't do anything to you, right?" Luke asked.

Lloyd blinked at the boy who he guessed was asking him if he was fine. He nodded and sheathed his swords.

"You aren't deaf." Jade said and came up to them, his eyes trained on the twin swordsman the whole time.

He had noticed how Lloyd could respond to sound even when the man claimed to be deaf. No, the red clad man never said he was deaf, he hadn't said a word since they met and had led them to think that he was both deaf and mute. During the battle with the robot, he had kept an eye on the exchange between God-General and the man, especially when Dist seemed to know him. It was true that Dist had asked Lloyd who he was, but he had specifically asked only Lloyd when Jade was sure that Dist didn't know who some of the others were too.

He was too far away and couldn't tell what really happened between the two men, but he had seen Lloyd stopping when his blade was still some distance from incapacitating the God-General and he was pretty sure nothing was holding the man back from finishing his attack. The only explanation he could come up with was that Dist had said something to him that made him pause. It's possible that this man was a spy. But then it would be strange for Dist to blow his cover like that, he knew the man was silly – well, maybe not as silly as he first thought from what he witnessed today – but no matter how foolish he was, he wouldn't just blow up the cover of one of their own spies like that.

Lloyd frowned at the man before him. He didn't know what he said, but the tone indicated that he wasn't asking if he was fine or anything similar. He thought maybe Jade had seen the exchange between him and their enemy and was asking what happened between them, but this man seemed to be a very composed man that knew what he was doing twenty-four-seven and wouldn't make the mistake of trying to talk to a deaf man.

"What are you talking about? Of course Lloyd can't hear us." Luke also frowned at Jade.

Jade sighed. It's true that he hadn't shown any recognition when they talked to him, and Jade knew it was genuine, but it was also glaringly obvious that he was not deaf. "Anise, hold onto Guy's arm for me, please."

"Sure~" Though not sure what this was for, Anise replied with her trademark singsong voice and approached the unsuspecting swordsman.

Guy blinked when he heard what the Malkuthian soldier just said. "Wh- what are yo-" He was cut off when he felt the petite female jumped at him and latched onto his arm. "Aaaaaaahhhhhh! St- stop! G- get down!" He screamed and tried to get the girl off of him.

Being the experienced warrior he was, Lloyd immediately went into a battle stance and looked at where Guy was screaming, thinking that an enemy was nearby and had hurt the blond swordsman.

"Hey, it's okay, Guy was just screaming because- woah wait, you can hear Guy!?" Luke looked at the swordsman who was still looking at Guy.

At the red hair noble's exclamation and finally seeing that Guy was just shouting because Anise tackled him, Lloyd finally understood what this was all about. He straightened himself, all the while glaring at Jade. He knew it was the man's way to blow his cover of being deaf.

"Colonel, what's the meaning of this?" Tear asked, having been silently watching the exchange between the three male members of their party.

"One thing we now know is that he can hear us, but it's also true that he can't understand us, at least orally." Jade answered.

"What's this? What's this? You mean Lloyd doesn't know our language?" Anise asked as she skipped towards the rest of her group, leaving the twitching form of Guy on the ground behind. She stopped next to Tear and cocked her head to the side. "But he can read our writing."

"My guess is he is trying to learn our language." Jade said.

Tear nodded. "That would explain why it took him such a long time just to write out his name."

"But it didn't take him long to understand the words." Anise pointed out.

"The words we showed him so far were just some basic words. It's possible he wouldn't be able to understand them if our questions were too complicated." Jade said.

Luke frowned and pointed accusingly at Lloyd while still looking at Tear. "But then why did he have to lie to us!?"

"Technically, he didn't lie to us, he never said anything about him not being able to hear and talk if he hasn't said a word." Jade said.

"But still!"

"To avoid suspicion." Tear replied, not at all fazed by Luke's outburst. "If it is true that he can hear, but just can't understand the words, it would look strange if he were to try to communicate with others as the language we are using now is the most common language used in this world."

"I see." Anise pressed her forefinger to her cheek as she continued Tear's explanation. "There are still places in this world that are unexplored. It's possible that a group of people that doesn't know our language exists."

"Anyway, now that the danger is over, we better check to see how Ion's doing. We will discuss more on this matter later." Jade said and the party started leaving the deck and Luke went over to where his friend was still recovering from Anise's 'attack' on the ground.

Lloyd finally dropped his glare, his own version of his dad's infamous 'death glare', though it was toned down a lot, he couldn't really fault Jade for blowing his cover. He looked at the group and shrugged before following after them. He wasn't trying to hide anything from them anyway so there's no point to worry about it now. And if one of their enemies could speak his language and knew about mana, he just needed to find an excuse to follow this group and he would be able to eventually meet that man again. He doubted Kratos would still be in Chesedonia even if he returned now, so the best way to tackle this was to follow any lead he came upon.

And that last question, what had the man wanted to ask? He was pointing at his left hand, and that unfinished word. Was he in fact pointing at the Angelus Sphere on the back of his hand and was going to ask if it was a Cruxis Crystal? No matter, he would find that man again and ask him about it.

* * *

Kratos was curious about the man who gave off the weak mana signature, but after what Dist told him about Asch, he knew that finding the boy took priority. The boy was too prideful to ask for help. Even after seven years, he still had this thinking that he needed to impress Kratos by solving problems on his own, sometimes even so much that he ignored his own body condition, like this time.

Asch was likely doing some investigation on Van on his own, which was very dangerous, especially if what Dist said about Cantabile was true then Van would have known that the original Luke was not dead and would have been prepared for Asch. It's very likely that he would also know about Asch wanting to find a way to interfere with his plan and had already laid down traps to capture him. However, Van was really making a move now, not just doing some flashy things to lure Asch out. And it's worrying that Van's plan likely had something to do with the Sephiroth.

Kratos didn't know what his plan was at the moment, and he was going to join Asch in his investigation. He had been in this world for thirteen years already and had spent most of the time just observing Van. He had done wrong by letting Van replicate Asch, scarring the boy permanently. This time he would have to be more prepared for whatever Van was going to do and if necessary, put a stop to it before it could do any harm to the world. It's true that they needed Van's plan to overturn the Score, but he didn't want to stand by and do nothing when people were hurt.

If it turned out that Van was indeed going to do more harm than good, then he would just have to use his plan as a draft and think of something else. If worse came to worst, he would just have to think of another way to break the curse of the Score. It wasn't the first time he had to come up with a plan to save the world anyway. Although Lloyd was the one that reunited Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, he was the first one to come up with the plan to forge the Ring of the Pact so human could wield the Eternal Sword and had originally intended to use the Eternal Sword to reunite the world himself.

Determined to find out Asch's whereabouts and more about Van's plan with the boy, Kratos had decided to come back to Derris Kharlan so he could use the communication device here to contact Asch and asked Dist to look out for anything that might possess mana for him. It's quite troublesome to come all the way back to Derris Kharlan, but Dist's gadgets couldn't cover the whole planet and since they didn't know where Asch was, the only way to contact him would be to use the one in the violet planet. At least the portal to Derris Kharlan was still near Tataroo Valley and it didn't take him long to get there. He hoped that Asch had taken the communication set that linked to Derris Kharlan with him when he left.

The automatic door to the main control room slid open and Kratos saw that someone, apart from the angels, was already inside.

"Kratos, you are back!" The Aggregate Sentience of Darkness grinned at him and put down the Rune Crest he had been examining before Kratos walked in.

"Why are you here?" Kratos asked. He walked past the grinning man and sat down before one of the computers.

Shadow shrugged. "No one apart from the angels are here at the moment, so I guess it's safe for me to come up." There's nothing Shadow could do to the aura of death that surrounded him everywhere he went. It's sad, but he was resigned to the fate of not being able to get close to people unless he wanted to drive them crazy. It's true that Aggregate Sentience were sentinel beings that rarely made contact with humans, like how Rem thought they should just do their 'job' and oversee the world and the people in it without interfering, but Shadow was different from his fellow Aggregate Sentience.

Shadow found humans interesting. There might be others that also found human interesting, but he was the only one that had developed a more human-like personality based on the ones he found the most amusing. And among all of them, it's his previous pact maker, Lorelei Ispania, that had the biggest influence on his current personality. It was ironic, him becomin more similar to the human Lorelei behavior wise while Lorelei, the Aggregate Sentience of Sound, behaving more like a true Aggregate Sentience as time passed. It's like their personalities were exchanged. Though to be fair, Shadow had a fairly human-like behavior even before he met his previous pact maker.

"So how's the plan going? You were gone so fast last time that I didn't even manage to ask you how the conversion is." Shadow asked.

Kratos sighed, sometimes he just didn't get what was going on in the powerful being's head. "You have just been examining the Rune Crest and I know you can tell right away anyway, what's the point in asking something you already know?"

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Don't be so stuck up, sometimes I swear you are even worse than Rem."

"The conversion is a success, but Dist is currently occupied so we can't start the actual plan yet."

"Humans and their duties." Shadow commented in slight annoyance and looked at the screen before Kratos. "So what are you doing now?"

"Contacting Asch."

"Huh? He's missing?"

"No, but I need to find him before he accidentally killed himself." Kratos replied.

Shadow shrugged and gestured for Kratos to continue whatever he was doing. Kratos typed another few commands on the keyboard and the computer started emitting a static noise. A while later, the screen became blank and there was the distinctive beep telling Kratos that the connection was made.

"Asch. Where are you?" Kratos asked.

"So you are back." Asch's voice came from the speaker somewhere near the screen.

"Yes. Now tell me where you are."

"Following the Tartarus."

"The one the Oracle Knights has taken over?

"You know that? How?"

"Dist told me. Which of the Six God-Generals are on it now?"

"Largo and Sync if I am correct."

Kratos inwardly frowned. Asch was really pushing his luck, hadn't he realized the danger he's in by following not one, but two God Generals? Did he think he could take them on at the same time? "Where are you? I am coming with you, it's too dangerous for you to follow them alone."

"I am not alone, Noir and her two sidekicks are with me."

"The Dark Wings?"

"I met them in Chesedonia, funny that they told me they tried to steal from someone who looks like me there." Asch snorted as he said the last part.

Kratos noticed the bitterness in Asch's tone and immediately knew who he was referring to. "You replica." He knew Asch still had this anger issue whenever those from the past he stubbornly threw away was mentioned. He had thought his time away from Baticul would be able to heal the boy and make him less bitter. He did succeed in making Asch less bitter, but the boy was still on the way to recovery.

Kratos mentally shook his head to rid himself of the thoughts, there's something more important now. He would worry about the boy's behavior later. "It's still too dangerous, tell me where you are now."

"We are near the Desert Oasis, but they are still moving and I have no idea where their destination is." Asch answered.

"I will go to the Desert Oasis and follow the trail left by the Tartarus from there."

"Right." Then the connection was cut before Kratos could even ask about his condition and how his injury was recovering, though he supposed the boy would just say that he was fine and not tell him his real condition. Kratos typed another few commands into another computer, this time setting the warp destination to somewhere near the Desert Oasis. He also added a time limit so that it would disappear after five minutes. He stood up and headed to the entrance of the room once he finished.

"Leaving again so soon?" Shadow asked as he walked side by side with the auburn haired angel to the warp point.

"You heard my conversation with Asch." Kratos replied.

Shadow shrugged. "Fine, but come back soon, alright? The last extraction was seven years ago and that's when I first came here." The extraction he was referring to was the steps they had taken to prevent all the mana in the Cruxis Crystals of the angels from changing to Seventh Fonons. "It's boring as hell here and I want to finally have something to do again."

"I wonder how you survived two thousand years in Tower of Rem alone?"

Shadow shivered and hugged himself with both hands. "Don't remind me of such depressing thoughts. Looking back at it now, it's like the worst nightmare I could ever get."

Kratos resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the Aggregate Sentience's antics and walked to the middle of the warp circle, fonons started rising up from the glyphs on the circle. This was not the original warp point that Kratos used to travel to Auldrant when he first came. As the mana level in his body became lower, they needed to modify some of the warp circles so that now, instead of mana, fonon was used as the energy to power it. The other reason for that was they needed to make it so that Asch and Dist, people without any mana, could also use the warp.

That's also why he had set a time limit for it. If it's still based on mana, he wouldn't have to worry about people finding the magic circle as they wouldn't even notice the existence of it even if they stood right on it. However, since it's now powered by fonons, any person on Auldrant could use it. He didn't need some random person accidentally stumbling upon it and ended up in Derris Kharlan.

He hadn't set a time limit when he went to Tataroo Valley because no people would likely went there, especially since the bridge was destroyed, but there were quite a lot of travellers in the vicinity of the Desert Oasis. Right now, the only permanent warp points were near Namcobanda Island and Daath, but those were well hidden and only Asch and Dist knew about them.

"I can't make any promise. It seems things are about to get busy." Kratos said, and before Shadow could say anything else, he felt the distortion of space surrounding him and the familiar tug on his fonons as he disappeared from Welgaia.

* * *

**~ Skit: A lonely person ~**

Anise: Hmm...

Guy: Anise? Is something wrong?

Anise: Ah, hee hee, nothing's wrong~

Ion: Is it because of Dist?

Luke: Why Dist?

Tear: I heard that no one in the Order really talks to him, except for when it concerns Order business.

Luke: You mean he has no friends?

Jade: Oh my, such a lonely person.

Ion: That's not true, though most of the people avoid talking to him, there are a few exceptions.

Anise: Like Gloomietta.

Luke: Gloomietta? Oh right, you mean Arietta.

Anise: Yes, there are also some others... but now that I think of it, I think I can count the number of friends he has with just one hand.

Guy: So Anise, you are one of the few exceptions too?

Anise: ...it's a bit sad seeing him always sitting alone during lunchtime when the cafeteria is so crowded and full of life.

Guy: And you are having difficulty imagining him as the enemy.

Anise: … a bit, I mean, he's weird and all and I can understand why people tend to avoid him, but he helped me out and I don't really want to think of him as a bad guy... just like I know that Gloomietta is only doing all this because she wants Ion back and might not even know about the letter of peace at all.

Tear: And Major Legretta and Major Cantabile too... by the way, speaking of Major Cantabile and Dist, I think I have seen the two of them having lunch together at times. Is Major Cantabile is also one of his only friends? Or is she just discussing Order business with him?

Anise: Really? Umm... I'm not sure about Cantabile, I am not that close to her, and she's always not in the Order due to her missions... but Dist and Cantabile... ehhhh!?

Luke: Woah, Anise, my eardrums! The hell you're suddenly shouting for!?

Anise: Sorry, Luke. Just that Dist likes to rant and mostly I just tune him out when he does that, but I vaguely recall Cantabile's name coming up quite often in his rants now that Tear mentioned the two of them being together.

Tear: Ho- how can you suggest that!? Major Cantabile wouldn't- I mean, she-

Luke: What is it?

Anise: Luke! Can't you see the connection!?

Luke: ?

Jade: I pity you, Guy.

Guy: Huh? What do you mean?

Jade: To have someone like Dist as a rival in love.

Guy: I told you it's not like that!

* * *

**~ Skit: A lonely person (take two) ~**

_(Deviates from the part where Anise hinted Cantabile and Dist together)_

Tear: Ho- how can you suggest that!? Major Cantabile wouldn't- I mean, she-

Anise: No. Dist had a sad look whenever he mentioned Cantabile, not a lovesick look. If anything, I will say they got into a fight or something like that.

Ion: ...

Jade: I guess it's a relief to you then, Guy.

Guy: I told you it's not like that!

Tear: Then what were you shouting for?

Anise: (evil smirk) There's a certain someone that Dist mentioned a lot in his rants, even more than Cantabile.

Luke: Someone we know?

Jade: (sing-song voice) Anise, if you value your life, then I suggest you stop this instance.

Anise: (innocent look) Why? I was just going to say it's Emperor Peony. (fake shocked expression and gasped) Colonel! Are you perhaps thinking that I was going to say it's you!?

Tear: Dist is a friend of Malkuth's Emperor!?

Anise: I also thought he was just joking at first. But Ion confirmed it.

Ion: Yes, Dist is originally from Malkuth, and I know for a fact that the two of them have been friends since a long time ago.

Guy: Speaking of which, Jade, I remember Field Marshal McGovern saying something about you and Emperor Peony going way back. Does that mean the three of you are friends and you are _jealous _that Dist is talking about Emperor Peony more than you?

Anise: Don't worry, Colonel, from the way he talks, I'm sure he likes you more.

Jade: (icy glare) This is possibly the most repulsive idea I have ever heard in my life.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Thanks again for the reviews! Here's my reply to some them:

**Reality Hacker –** Power scaling... let's see... I don't think I need to go into the level of power of the characters I haven't made a change to (Luke's party and the God Generals except Dist, Asch and Cantabile). Lloyd _was_ powerful, but right now he's recovering from serious mana exhaustion, having to share the tiny amount of mana he recovered with Verius and being in an environment with no mana, so he's quite weak right now, but still stronger than Luke's party. I'll say he's a bit weaker than all God-Generals and Jade before his power was sealed by the fon slot seal.

Kratos... I'm not really sure how to measure his power... he is stronger than Van and maybe can hold off three God-Generals at once? I can't and won't say more about his power level as I guess you can say that it's something like a spoiler. By the way, I don't think Lloyd is stronger than Kratos. Kratos' status when he fought Lloyd was lower than when we fought him the second time and his HP was almost half of when we fought him the first time. He's looking forward to die at Lloyd's hand at that time... even if that's not the case, Yuan had recently dealt an almost fatal wound to him in the game, or he's recovering from mana exhaustion in the anime. Anyway, it's just my opinion that Kratos was holding back in that fight.

Cantabile is stronger than the other God-Generals and second to Van. Asch is more or less the same as the current Lloyd. Dist, without his robot, is a bit stronger than Asch... I shouldn't really use the word stronger, as he's still physically weaker than most and is more of a stealth fighter, but you know how people joked that Dist was the 'most powerful' seeing as how he could survive through the most impossible situations.

**Windsbane** – Sorry to burst the bubble, but you won't be able to see Asch's reaction to Kratos having a son, because he already knew ^^" Kratos was a less stoic person here due to all the character development and thus was a bit more open about his past. There would still be things he would rather not talk about, but having a son he's proud of, even though (he thought) he couldn't see him again, was something I think he would freely, at least compared to before, share with others. Especially considering the fact that he did choose to tell Asch and Dist about his status as an angel and Derris Kharlan on his own.

**splitheart1120 –** There are several reasons as to why Kratos didn't recognise Lloyd's mana signature. 1. Kratos' own mana level had become very low and he's not the same angel that could sense mana that well currently, that's also the reason he couldn't tell where the mana trail was unless he was very near to it. 2. It's been a very long time already and I doubt Kratos could just tell that that's Lloyd's mana signature the moment he sensed it, Lloyd only knew that was Kratos' mana signature because he's specifically looking for him. 3. Lloyd's mana signature was more like a mix of his and Verius' mana right now and it just made it even more impossible for Kratos to tell that Lloyd was the one emitting mana.

This wasn't the original skit I wanted to put here, but then Guy was too much fun to tease and I just can't resist it. I only added the second skit that was an alternate take of the one above just before I posted this chapter. I remembered the skit in which Guy successfully made a comeback that left Jade speechless and the end result is this skit, Guy and Anise teasing Jade.

Artes used in this chapter:

Luke - **Raging Blast **烈破掌 _Reppashou_

Guy - **Void Tempest **真空破斬 _Shinkuuhazan_

Tear - **Nocturnal Light**

Jade -** Thunder Blade**

_Uploaded on 12 July 2013._


	7. Suspicious Stranger

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_; Character reading; _"Lloyd's language"_;_ Character remembering a past conversation/event_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 6: Suspicious Stranger**

"Jade Curdiss."

"No. It's Curtiss_. _Jade Cur-tiss" Luke corrected.

Lloyd furrowed his brow and tried to pronounce the name. "Jade Curtiss."

Luke grinned and snapped Lloyd's back. "There you have it, it's not that hard, right?"

Although Lloyd didn't know what the other said, he knew he was praising him for his correct pronunciation and grinned back. "Thanks." That's the word he had heard the others told him whenever he saved them or did a favor for them. He then knew he had correctly guessed the meaning of the word when Luke's grin widened.

After they had returned to the cabin, they found that the injured Kimlascan soldier had already left, leaving Ion alone in the room. They told Ion what had occurred and who had attacked them. The troubled look was on the Fon Master again when he heard that another one of the Six God-Generals had outright attacked a Kimlascan ship. They then proceeded to tell Ion about what they learned of Lloyd and their deduction of him being from some unexplored lands.

They had written messages to Lloyd to let him know that they knew he wasn't deaf and understood that he had trouble with their language. After Lloyd read that message, he had tried speaking to the others in his own language, but unsurprisingly, none of them knew what he was talking about. Then Lloyd surprised them by pointing at himself and saying his own name in Fonics, though there was a strong accent and the pronunciation was slightly off. He then pointed at Luke and it had taken the others a while to understand that the twin swordsman wanted to learn how to speak their names.

"I didn't think Luke can be such a patient teacher." Tear commented as she watched the always impatient noble teaching Lloyd the pronunciation of the names of all of them.

"Really? I think it's quite understandable." Guy said. "I mean, even though the situation is different, in a way, what Lloyd is going through now must have reminded Luke of his own history of having to relearn the language from scratch."

Ion nodded. "Luke is also a very kind person, he just doesn't know how to show it to others."

"Luke's so cute~" Anise exclaimed.

"Colonel, what do you think of Lloyd?" Tear asked.

"He looks to be an experienced warrior." Jade commented.

Guy thought back to the battles they had earlier with the Oracle Knights. It's obvious that Lloyd was a more skilled swordsman than him. "Right."

"Then I guess we are lucky to have him on our side." Anise said.

"Yes." Jade said.

"But?" Guy asked, knowing from the tone that Jade's sentence wasn't quite finished yet.

"Regardless of what he has done for us so far, it's in our best interest to keep an eye on him." _One should never place their trust on others so easily during times like this. _The words were unsaid, but all of them, except Luke who was too engrossed in teaching the man before him the correct pronunciation of Anise' name to heard the exchange, understood the hidden message.

* * *

Asch frowned. He and the Dark Wings had followed the Tartarus to the outskirts of Baticul. He knew the replica and his ragtag group were in the city. From what Dist told him, the God-Generals were without any doubt after the Fon Master so they could have him remove the Daathic seals on the Sephiroth. If that's the case, then did that meant that they were going to just wait outside the city and capture the Fon Master the moment he stepped out of it?

He also heard that the Six God-Generals were using Mohs as a scapegoat and placing the blame on him for wanting to interfere with the delivery of the letter of peace. But that excuse wouldn't be valid after they successfully delivered the letter. He also knew that Mohs was currently in Baticul and no matter how pissed he was due to Ion's decision to aid Malkuth, he wouldn't accept the Oracle Knights capturing the Fon Master right under his nose and would most likely declare them as traitors.

Yet here they were, outside the city parameters waiting for the Fon Master to come out. The only reason Asch could think of was that Van was going all out and wasn't concerned at all if he had to leave the Order. Or maybe Sync and Largo were going to take all the blame if that happened?

"Seems they aren't going to Baticul after all." York said.

Asch snapped out of his musings at the words and looked up to see that the the trail they were following was indeed leading to the north of the city and not the city itself. But he knew where it led to and immediately understood what the Oracle Knights were aiming at. "They _are_ going to Baticul. There's a hidden passage on the northern cliff-side leading to the city."

"I see. So they are going to sneak into the city." Noir commented after a pause.

"If they did that, they would be able to capture the Fon Master without alerting too many people." Asch said.

"What do we do?" Urushi, the one driving the car, asked. "I don't see much cover over that side. If we continue, they will notice us following them."

"Drop me off at the closest point you can get to without being noticed."

"What!? Are you thinking of going alone? Do you seriously think we are going to let you do something so dangerous!?" Noir cried out.

"Look, there's nothing else you could do if you can't get the damn car any closer, right?" Noir was about to protest when Asch continued. "How about you wait here for Kratos? He's following our trail right now. You can let him know where I am when he reaches here. Someone has to fill him in on what's happening."

"Fine." Noir huffed. "Don't you dare die on me, boy." She turned to Urushi. "Try to get as close as possible to the Tartarus."

"What, ma'm? Are we really going to let him go alone?" Urushi asked.

Noir sighed. "We all know how stubborn he can get. It's too much for us to handle. Better let the expert deal with this extremely stubborn young man."

Asch's eyebrow ticked at how the woman was talking as if he wasn't there.

* * *

Lloyd stared at the ceiling of one of the guest rooms in the Fabre manor. He didn't need to sleep, but there wasn't much he could do except lying on the bed, especially when he was in a manor that was full of people. He didn't want to alert the others and let them think he was something like a thief sneaking around when everyone was asleep. He saw sunlight streaming into the room through the curtains and heard birds chirping. It was finally morning. He got up and started preparing for the day.

After a two day long voyage they had finally arrived at Baticul, which was the final destination of the others' journey from Engeve based on what he was told by Luke. He had learned that they were pursued because of some valuable documents they were tasked to give to the King of Kimlasca. Though he had a feeling the others were still holding some secrets from him, he understood the need for secrecy as he was just a complete stranger, one that couldn't communicate with them to boot.

But it didn't matter that he didn't know the full story, he would still help them. After all, Dwarven Vow number two said to never abandon someone in need. Well, part of the reason was also that following them might lead him to the man that spoke his language and knew what mana was...

From the welcome they had received upon getting off the ship, apparently Luke was something like a noble. He didn't know what the others were talking about, but Luke didn't seem to mind so he tagged along. He was awed by the large city, which he knew was the capital of Kimlasca, it was even more grand than Meltokio. However, as awed as he was, he noticed that Luke was also behaving similarly as him.

Wasn't he a noble living here? Why did he look like he's also new to this city? There were many questions he wanted to ask, but then he didn't know how to voice his questions in their language nor did he know how to write down the words for them. So he just followed and observed the others silently.

He followed them to the uppermost part of the city and entered the castle that was even larger than the one in Meltokio. When they got to the room which he supposed to be the throne room, they saw a man talking to the King and Luke shouted something to halt their conversation. He knew Luke was a noble, but it seemed he was very close to the King too. Luke was nothing like Zelos, but apart from the same long red hair, Lloyd found another similarity between the two for having much influence over the King.

A long exchange which Lloyd had no idea what it was about followed after that. He noticed the man that had been talking to the King was pissed at their arrival and Lloyd was sure it wasn't just because they interrupted their conversation. He saw Anise handing a letter to the King's aide and knew immediately that that was the valuable documents he heard about.

After all the talking, he was led outside the castle to the huge manor next to it, which Guy informed him was Luke's home. Upon entry, they were greeted by Princess Natalia, Luke's fiancée. Then the weirdest thing happened. When Guy introduced him to the princess and vice versa, Natalia suddenly stepped very close to him and started scrutinising him. After a while she backed away and muttered something under her breath before turning to Luke again. He didn't know what triggered the reaction, but he caught the word 'Kratos' somewhere in between all the foreign words she said.

He was glad he had asked Luke for the pronunciation of his father's name in their language, otherwise he wouldn't know that he had a lead. He noticed the look of recognition on Natalia and knew that the girl had seen his father before and was checking for similarities between the two of them. Lloyd had heard from time to time that he did look and feel like his father so when that look passed over the girl he knew that the girl didn't just know of him like Luke and the others did.

Though there're still the questions of how he came to this planet and what happened to Derris Kharlan, he knew it was only a matter of time before he got to the bottom of all this. For now all he had to do was look for Kratos while keeping an eye out for anything mana related. Then all he needed to do was wait for Verius, the Eternal Sword and himself to recover all their mana and find a way to get back to Aselia. That didn't sound so hard, right?

After Lloyd had cleaned himself and put on his boots, he opened the door of his room and stepped into the long corridor in the eastern wing of the huge manor. He heard the sound of sword swinging and followed it to the garden. There he saw Guy practicing with his katana.

Guy paused his morning exercise when he noticed Lloyd. "Morning, Lloyd." He smiled at the brunette.

"Morning." Lloyd returned the smile with his own grin. "Luke?"

Guy jerked a thumb at the small house in the garden. "Sleeping." He then used his katana to trace out some words on the soil. What do you want to do today?

Lloyd thought for a while and pointed at the direction of the gate. He held up a hand and imitated a man walking with two fingers.

To the city? After Lloyd nodded, Guy traced out another question. I can't go with you, is it okay if I just give you a map of the city? Lloyd nodded again and Guy led him to the servant's quarters where he had kept a map of Baticul just in case.

* * *

"So Van is..." Tear trailed off and her eyes became unfocused for just a split second before she steeled her expression again.

The reason she accepted the mission to search for the Seventh Fonstone was so that she could travel the Outer Lands freely to assassinate Van. She had the resolve to kill her own brother since their last conversation in Yulia City. She even tried, though in the end she failed due to Luke's interception. There was no reason for her to feel sad when she was informed of Van's imprisonment, even though it's for a crime he hadn't committed.

_Maybe that's the reason. Luke disappeared from Baticul because of me, yet Van took the blame. _She felt guilty, it didn't matter that this worked to her advantage as her brother being a prisoner meant that he wouldn't be able to carry out whatever crazy plan he wanted to do to take revenge on the world. And the idea of her conspiring with Van to kidnap Luke was simply too ridiculous.

Tear mentally shook her head to rid herself of the thoughts. She's a soldier, there's no need for her to show emotion towards her enemy, especially when she had a mission to do. She directed her gaze at the man before her, the same one that informed her of her brother's imprisonment. "Grand Maestro Mohs, I believe you said you have a lead on the Seventh Fonstone."

"I have checked with a Scorer last night, according to the Score, you will be going to the deepest part of the land where you shall acquire Lorelei's power. I suppose Lorelei's power here is referring to the Seventh Fonstone." Mohs said.

Tear nodded. Although the term 'Lorelei's power' had also come up in the Score of some other people, it made sense that it was talking about the Seventh Fonstone when her name and that term appeared in the same sentence.

"What about the deepest part of the land? Do you think it's talking about my hometown?" She was talking about Yulia City or the Qliphoth in general, but since only maestros and above in the Order and those born in Yulia City knew of the Float Project, it wouldn't do for Tear to said the name out loud.

Mohs shook his head. "We have checked there before, and if it's within the miasma or the sea of mud, then there's nothing we can do. But I'm sure the Seventh Fonstone is up here. The only place I can think of is Akzeriuth. That city extends quite deep underground due to its mines."

"Then the Seventh Fonstone is in Akzeriuth?"

Mohs nodded. "Yes. It's likely that Luke will also wind up going there, and-"

"What about me?" Luke's sharp tone stopped Mohs from finishing his sentence. Tear let her gaze fall on the red haired noble and saw Luke staring at them with narrowed eyes that were full of suspicion.

"Oh, greetings, Luke." Mohs covered up his surprise with a false smile. "We've been waiting for you. Colonel Curtiss is already waiting inside."

The contempt in Luke's gaze was replaced by confusion. "Jade's here?"

"Let's go." Mohs headed towards the throne room and ignored Luke's question.

* * *

"_Demonic Circle!"_ Lloyd swung the Vorpal Sword around in a circle and slammed it into the ground to create a close-range shockwave that hit the two Oracle Knights in front of him. He raised his other sword, the Flamberge, to block a downward slash by yet another Oracle Knight. He pushed the soldier away with his sword. While the soldier was still staggering backwards, he turned another full circle and finished his enemy with a powerful horizontal slash at his midsection. The slash was powerful enough to break the armor, but not powerful enough to slash the man into two, though it was still enough to knock the man down.

Lloyd panted lightly and stared at the blood seeping out of the wound he inflicted. He slowly looked up and saw the six other Oracle Knights he defeated just now lying on the ground either unconscious or dead.

"_To kill your enemy means to bear the responsibility for that life. And you must never forget that."_

It's been a long time ago, but Kratos' words still rang in his head so loud and clear that it was as if the man was just standing next to him. He would never forget that every lives was precious and he was willing to bear that responsibility. But that didn't mean he didn't feel guilty whenever he took a life. It's not something new to him, but it's quite some time since he last killed another human and it took time getting used to that familiar feeling of guilt again after so long. He heard another few sets of footsteps approaching and shook his head to steel his thought. He counted seven people coming. He raised his swords and got into his fighting stance.

"I applaud you for handling so many Oracle Knights alone so well. You look to be someone that know what they're doing, no wonder the foot soldiers aren't enough for the job."

Lloyd looked at the man who had just spoken. He was easily over two meters tall, had a muscular build, but not too bulky, and wield a large scythe. He seemed to be the leader of the enemies. Lloyd didn't understand what he said, but he didn't need to. All he had to do was stall for time so Ion could get back to the city and call for local guards to help.

He was randomly walking around the city when he saw Ion being flanked by two of the soldiers that wore the same uniform as those he fought on the ship to Baticul. He didn't think much at first as Anise had informed him that those were soldiers working for some kind of organization where Ion was the leader of. The ones that attacked them before were just acting on someone else's orders. And now that the valuable documents they had been guarding was safely in the King's hand, there's no need for the Oracle Knights to attack them anymore.

Regardless, Lloyd still thought something was weird and decided to follow them. He had followed them to a place that looked like a station with two aircars. He first understood that Ion was indeed kidnapped when the Oracle Knights suddenly attacked the local soldiers standing guard before the cable cars. He rushed towards where Ion was hoping to rescue him. The Oracle Knights had taken Ion and the bodies of the unconscious soldiers to one of the cable cars. By the time Lloyd finally reached them, the car had already started to move and he had no choice but to jump onto the moving car.

He had quickly dispatched the two kidnappers. However, since the car was already moving and in mid air there was nothing he and Ion could do but wait for it to get to the other side then make it go back again. What he didn't expect was another six Oracle Knights waiting on the other side. There's only so much he could do to defend against six enemies and protect someone when confined in such a small area and he carelessly let one of them slip through his defense and snatched Ion away.

It had taken him some time, but he managed to defeat the remaining five soldiers and gave chase to the one that had Ion. When he finally caught up to them and succeeded in saving the green haired boy, six other Oracle Knights showed up and he signaled for Ion to escape. He knew the kid understood what he was signalling, but he was still reluctant to leave the twin swordsman behind. But when Lloyd shouted at him to go, Ion had finally ran away after one last glance at him.

"But I see that you are becoming tired from having to fight so much."

Lloyd tightened his grip on the Material Blade when the large man made a signal and the Oracle Knights flanking his sides all rushed at him at the same time.

"_Demon Fang! Double Demon Fang! Demonic Chaos!"_ He sent forth one blue projectile, then two, then three. The three artes were aimed at three different soldiers, but two of them had evaded and his combo was only able to take out one of the six enemies. He sidestepped an upper slash and parried another downward one with his blades.

He felt someone closing in from behind when he still had his hands full. He dropped to the ground in the last moment when he felt the one behind swinging his sword at him. There was a loud clang when the two blades that were slashing at him from different directions hit each other. Lloyd swept his legs in a half circle and knocked both soldiers down. Even before the soldiers fully dropped to the ground, he dashed away towards one of the three enemies that were still standing.

"_Sonic Sword Rain!" _He thrust the Vorpal Sword forward repeatedly at the man before him so fast that his arms was in a blur and ended the attack with a powerful thrust.

Although his opponent had brought up his own weapon to block the attack, Lloyd's attack was too strong and the man was sent flying from the force of it. With the icy blade still outstretched before him, he swung his right arm in the clockwise direction, drawing a wide arc with the sword and temporarily pushed back the second last offender that was closing in from his right. Without missing a beat, he swung the Flamberge around at such a great speed that normal humans would have trouble following the movement of the flaming sword with their eyes and had the tip of it pointing at the throat of his last enemy, in between where the metal plates of the helmet and the breastplate met.

He was about to use the hilt of the Vorpal Sword to knock the Oracle Knight unconscious when he heard something coming his way and had to jump away to dodge the large scythe that would have easily cut him into two if he didn't respond fast enough. However, although he was quick enough to evade the slash, he wasn't that lucky when the man thrust the blunt end of his weapon at him. He gasped as pain exploded in his chest. The air in his lung was being forced out of him and he was sent flying backwards.

He stuck Flamberge into the ground and skidded to a stop in a kneeling position several meters away. He heard before saw the man coming at him and quickly held up his other weapon and blocked the heavy scythe that was descending down onto him.

"Sync!" The man above him shouted and Lloyd heard someone coming at them at a very fast pace. He spared a glance and saw the same one he had faced when he first acquainted Luke and the others dashing pass them. Lloyd cursed inwardly. The man he was currently engaged with was just a distraction while the other went to capture Ion, but there was nothing he could do.

He took his second sword out of the ground and crossed it with the the other. However, even with both swords above him, he still didn't have enough strength to push the man away. He still hadn't fully recovered from the mana exhaustion from when he first arrived here. It didn't help that his angelic strength was greatly weakened due to the lack of mana in this world and he did expand quite a lot of energy fighting nearly twenty soldiers before engaging this man. He grunted and gritted his teeth as he focused his mana onto his arms so he could put more strength into his push.

He roared and with one final boost of strength, successfully pushed the man away momentarily. He quickly rolled away just as the large scythe came back down again and destroyed the ground he just knelt on. He panted as he stood up and widened the distance between him and his enemy. He wiped the sweat that was gathering on his brow with his arm. He didn't think he could defeat this man in his current condition. But then again he was never one to give up without even trying. Although he still didn't know the reason, it was clear that these people were after Ion and he wasn't going to just hand the boy over to them.

* * *

"Ion you idiot! Don't you understand the point of having a bodyguard? Why can't you wait till I wake up before going into the city!?" Anise cursed as she ran across the busy street of Baticul. She looked around while running to search for the missing Fon Master. After another few minutes of running and panicking, her gaze picked up someone familiar, but it wasn't the one she's looking for.

"Luke!" She ran over and stopped in front of the red haired noble. "I missed you!"

"Eek!" Guy, who was standing next to Luke, quickly widened the distance between him and the girl.

Anise ignored Guy and looked at Luke's group. She saw that apart from the noble and his servant, Tear and Jade were also present. She sighed inwardly, so much for getting time alone with the red hair noble so she could become his lover and later marry into the rich family. "You're always together with Tear... it's not fair." She pouted.

Tear blinked confusedly at Anise and fought down the blush that was creeping up at her face at the Fon Master Guardian's suggestion. "I- I'm sorry. But don't worry, Anise. I'm not with him because I want to be."

"Anise, shouldn't you be with Ion?" Jade asked.

Anise widened her eyes and looked at Jade, as if only just remembering the missing Fon Master. "Colonel! When I woke up this morning, his bed was empty. I heard that he was going out on his own, but then some people said they had also seen two Oracle Knights taking him away!"

"But doesn't it mean that Ion was just having two Oracle Knights escorting him?" Guy reasoned.

"No! I have asked the branch already and they said Ion hasn't been there and they haven't deployed any Oracle Knights in the past three hours! Those two have to be working for the Six God-Generals to capture Ion!"

"So Ion's captured again." Luke said

"Let's go save him." Guy said.

"You can't! I heard that two God-Generals are right outside the city." Anise said.

Tear furrowed her brows. "This is bad. If the Six God-Generals are outside, they'll find out that we're going by land."

"Going? Where are you going?" Anise asked.

"Right, you don't know yet. The King has agreed to sign the peace treaty, but before that, we need to help Malkuth rescue its citizens in Akzeriuth that is currently facing a crisis due to the miasma. Malkuth can't do anything as the miasma has blocked their road to Akzeriuth so they asked Kimlasca for help. And Luke here," Guy jerked a thumb at Luke, "was assigned to be the goodwill ambassador to carry out the job."

"Wow~ you are so amazing, Luke!" Anise exclaimed and Luke smiled smugly.

"But then he only agreed to it because the King said he would release Dorian General Grants and have him aid us if he travelled to Akzeriuth as a goodwill ambassador." Jade sighed dramatically. "What a promising young noble, to put a single man above several thousand citizens."

"Shut up." Luke said irritatingly.

Anise cocked her head to her right. "But I saw the Commandant leading some soldiers to the port just now. Isn't he going there by sea? Why aren't you going with him?"

"No, that's a decoy. Oracle ships are watching the Central Ocean. It's likely an attempt by the Grand Maestro faction to interfere." Luke explained and ignored Tear's glare, the female Oracle Knight was still set on believing that the Grand Maestro only had the world's best interest in mind and didn't want war to break out.

"Damn it, we've to find a way out..." Luke muttered.

Anise perked up. "Then take me with you! If I can get outside the city, I can look for Ion!"

Luke turned to Jade. "What do you think?"

"I suppose we can't refuse her." Jade shrugged. "It sounds like Mohs isn't involved in Ion's kidnapping this time."

Anise nodded. "That's right. Mohs was mad."

"Then Grand Maestro Mohs and the Six God-Generals really aren't connected?" Tear mused and was relieved that her superior wasn't the one at fault.

"Though whether Mohs is trying to cause a war or not is a separate issue." Jade said and caused another troubled look on Tear.

"What do the Six God-Generals want with Ion? He said they took him to that place called the Sephiroth, right?" Luke asked.

"We don't have enough information to guess." Jade replied then addressed the whole party. "Right now, we should concentrate on getting out of this city."

"But what about Lloyd?" Anise asked, she knew Lloyd wasn't officially included in the trip to Akzeriuth, but she didn't think Luke would just left the twin swordsman in Baticul. Especially when they seemed to get along with each other and they were the only ones Lloyd knew in Baticul.

"I left him a message in the manor. He went out early in the morning and I haven't seen hi-" Guy paused and looked at Jade who had his poker face on.

"Huh, Guy? What is it?" Luke asked, not understanding why Guy suddenly paused mid-sentence.

"But the ones that took Ion were Oracle Knights." Anise pointed out.

"What are yo-"

"That's true, but he could have just changed." Tear said.

"Hey! Don't leave me out! What the heck are you talking about!?" Luke shouted, annoyed at the others for ignoring him.

"There's a possibility that Lloyd is the one that took Ion." Guy replied.

"Wha- wait, you mean, as in a spy?" Luke blinked at the ridiculous suggestion. "But how? He can't even understand us."

"We can't cross out the possibility that the God-Generals know the language. After all, Dist seemed to be able to converse with him." Jade said.

The others turned their gazes towards Jade, surprised at the revelation. "Is it true, Colonel?" Tear asked.

"I have thought of the possibility of Lloyd being a spy, but Dist seemed genuine when he asked who Lloyd was. I admit I carelessly lowered my guard when we passed the letter of peace to the King without any further obstacles." Jade said.

"Wait! We still don't know that yet!" Luke protested, refused to believe that the man he befriended was lying to him.

Guy nodded. "Luke's right. And we shouldn't waste anymore time dwelling on this... wait, I know a way to get out of the city unnoticed. Let's go to the abandoned factory in the old part of the city. We can get there by aircar."

"The abandoned factory? Okay." Luke said and headed towards the place Guy mentioned, grateful to the blond for stopping the discussion on Lloyd and eager to hurry up and leave the city so he could rejoin his master in Chesedonia, from where they would then go to Akzeriuth together.

* * *

**~ Skit: Different languages of the world ~**

Ion: Jade, did you find any connections between Lloyd's language and other languages?

Jade: Yes. It seemed to have stemmed from the Ancient languages as we have suspected.

Luke: Huh? What do you mean?

Ion: The Ancient languages are the basis for all the languages of this world. We thought that Lloyd's people might also have developed their own language from one of them.

Luke: Wait, Ancient languages? There are more than one?

Jade: Oh my, are you interested in learning other languages? I didn't know you had it in you.

Luke: If you don't want to answer then just shut up!

Jade: Well, since you asked nicely, there are also Ancient Frankith, Ancient Keterian, Ancie-

Luke: Wait! Stop! Ancient Frankith? Ancient Keterian? I have no idea what you are talking about.

Tear: Apart from the Kingdom of Ispania, there were five other major countries in this world during the Dawn Age, some of the bigger countries were the Kingdom of Frank, the Kingdom of Keter and the Kingdom of Hod. Each country had their own language. However, all the other countries were destroyed, leaving behind the Kingdom of Kimlasca Lanvaldear, so most wouldn't have heard of their languages. The reason they still teach Ancient Ispanian in school is that some parts of the Score is written in Ancient Ispanian.

Luke: O- okay.

Anise: Knowing so many lost languages, as expected of the Colonel!

Guy: Seriously, how many languages do you know?

Jade: Nine.

Luke: N- nine!?

Mieu: Jade is so amazing! I only knew one before, but now I know two! What about you, Master? How many languages do you know?

Luke: That's none of your business! You only know two because you are just cheating with the Sorcerer Ring! And does the language of monster count!?

Mieu: Mieu...

Guy: Haha, it's alright Luke, you have less than seven years of education, it's only natural that you only know one language.

Luke: Sh- shut up...

Anise: I only know two and my Ancient Ispanian isn't very good. How many languages do you know, Tear?

Tear: Eh, me? Let's see, I know Fonics, Ancient Ispanian and Melonics. I also know a bit Ancient Hodanic.

Anise: Wow, that's unexpected. What about you, Ion?

Ion: Two. I need to focus my education on Ancient Ispanian and other Order related things so I don't have the time to learn more than that.

Guy: I suppose it's natural for a Fon Master as young as you to not have the time to pick up more languages.

Luke: So Guy, how many languages do you know?

Guy: Same as Tear.

Jade: Tear I understand, considering she's from the Order of Lorelei and that Yulia was from the Kingdom of Hod, but why would you know Melonics and Ancient Hodanic?

Guy: I told you I like reading vacation spots. There are quite a lot of places that use Melonics. Though they still know Fonics, Melonics is something like their local tongue. Even though I haven't had the chance to go to those places yet, it never hurts to be prepared. As for Ancient Hodanic, one of my teachers was very interested in the Kingdom of Hod and so I've picked up bits and pieces of it, but I only know the basics.

Mieu: Jade, Tear and Guy are so amazing!

Luke: Shut up!

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Thanks everyone for their reviews!

**Kathiryn Orlinski **- Okay, so here's the reply to your question: It's not Shadow having the body _shape _of a half elf that makes him able to contain mana, it's the body _structure. _I know it's a bit confusing, think of how the humans in Aselia didn't have mana in their body but their offspring did if their partner was a half elf. Another point I haven't mentioned before and my sister so nicely pointed out to me was that it should be impossible for anyone from Auldrant that paired up with an elf to have offspring that won't mutate the moment they were born. But the fact was that they were born with the specific feature in elves that allowed them to house mana and so the mana and fonons in their body could co-exist. So my own made-up theory was that it's possible for fonons and mana to co-exist if the person in question had that elven part in their body. I hope that answers your question. Feel free to ask more if you have others ^^

(Sigh) I'm not sure why, I hate writing this chapter until I got to the fighting scene... but hopefully my hatred for it didn't make it unbearable to your eyes. Though I have this feeling that I will continue to find it difficult to write until I get to the point where Kratos and Lloyd reunite, which hopefully won't be long from here on. Maybe it's because the deviation from the game won't be much until that happened, or maybe it's because there's no Kratos in this chapter and that lessened my motivation to write it. Don't get me wrong, I like Lloyd, but I just like Kratos a lot more.

By the way, Melonics was the language of Celestia, the world Meredy came from, in Tales of Eternia.

Artes used by Lloyd in this chapter:

**Demonic Circle **魔皇刃_Makoujin_

**Demon Fang** 魔神剣_Majinken_

**Double Demon Fang** 魔神剣・双牙 _Majinken Souga_

**Demonic Chaos **魔神連牙斬_Majin Rengazan_

**Sonic Sword Rain **綜雨衝_Sou'ushou_

_Uploaded on 21 July 2013._


	8. Mirror Image

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_; Character reading; _"Lloyd's language"_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 7: Mirror Image**

Dark clouds covered the sky and droplets of water fell down from them. It was starting to rain. The at first light rain became heavier as time passed and soon it was near drenching. However, Lloyd ignored the water pouring on him and focused solely on the two teens before him.

"Quite the persistent one, aren't you?" Sync smirked.

Lloyd slowly edged his foot forward an- "I wouldn't do that if I were you." To emphasize his point, the masked God-General held Ion even closer to him and placed his hand onto his neck in a choking notion.

It was an empty threat, it wouldn't do to have him dead after they had gone through so much trouble to capture him. Not to mention murdering the Fon Master was something like the biggest crime one could ever commit and the murderer would be hunted by _everyone_ of the world. But Lloyd didn't know that, they hadn't told the man the importance of Ion yet. And the twin swordsman wouldn't move even if he knew Sync wasn't going to kill Ion, there were ways to injure others without killing them.

Lloyd knew that he's in a very unfavorable position now. He wasn't able to defeat the large man with the scythe, but when the other returned with Ion draped over his shoulder like a sag of potato and sped past them, Lloyd knew he had to shake the large man off. It was thanks to his angelic abilities that he could find a way to merge himself with the darkness of the abandoned building and crept away silently without alerting the his opponent.

He managed to follow the masked boy's footsteps, footsteps so light that he wouldn't have picked them up if not for his enhanced hearing, and exited the building, and found that they were not in the city anymore. He had stopped the teen from taking Ion to the huge vehicle in the distance. He originally planned on a sneak attack, but the field was too bare and without any cover it was impossible not to let the very agile boy notice him advancing on him, and it led to the current situation.

Lloyd heard footsteps approaching from behind and knew without looking that the other man had finally caught up. He frowned mentally. If the man decided to attack him now, there was nothing he could do unless he wanted to put Ion in more danger than he was already in, but then he would be gravely injured or even dead if he were to just stand here and take the full force of the attack. Then, to his surprise, the man walked past him towards his comrade without even sparing a glance at him.

"What? Getting soft?" Sync asked coldly.

Largo turned around and stared at Lloyd in the eyes. "He is an experienced swordsman and I want to defeat him in a fair fight."

Sync scoffed. "You and your honor."

"You take the Fon Master to the Tartarus and I will stay here to keep him occupied."

"Have your fun then." With one of his hands still holding onto Ion's arms behind his back, Sync released the loose chokehold on Ion's neck. He pivoted and jerked his hostage towards the direction of the Tartarus.

Lloyd knew he was in great trouble now. He was grateful for one of the enemies to be an honorable man that apparently wanted to kill him in a fair battle, but he was far from his top condition right now. It was clear to him from their previous fight that he couldn't defeat the man before him. He couldn't move as fast as he wanted to, coupled with the fact that they were in the open, he couldn't sneak past him like he did before.

With a shout that sounded like a war cry, Largo rushed at Lloyd with the blade of his scythe raised to his eye level. Lloyd was still contemplating on whether to dodge or block it when he heard another set of quickened footsteps approaching them. However, he didn't dare take his eyes off his opponent. When Largo was before the twin swordsman and he was swinging his large weapon horizontally at him, Lloyd jumped high into the air and curled himself into a ball with his blades pointing outwards. _"Tempest!"_ He started spinning towards where Ion and Sync were. However, he didn't expect the scythe hitting his blade stopping him mid air.

"Your opponent is me!" Largo swung his scythe around and threw Lloyd away and succeeded in getting him further away from the Tartarus.

Lloyd gritted his teeth as he flew across the air. He couldn't call out his wings yet due to the mana exhaustion. With great effort, he managed to twist his body around while still airborne. He saw out of the corner of his eye someone standing some distance away from them and a magic circle was glowing under his feet.

_He must be the one I heard just now. Is he a friend or an enemy?_ He mused as he landed onto the ground with his feet and quickly rolled away to evade the scythe that was slamming down at him.

"Icicle Rain!" Lloyd heard the newcomer yelled and saw mist started gathering above Sync and Ion. Something that looked like ice spikes formed from the mist and started raining down on them. The others must have also heard the yell as Lloyd saw the masked boy suddenly jumped away, dragging Ion with him, to dodge the ice spikes. However, he wasn't fast enough, seeing as he also needed to keep his hold on the Fon Master the whole time, and had one ice spike embedded into his thigh. The nearby Oracle Knights were not so lucky and was hit and downed by the magic.

He didn't know what happened next as Largo was before him again and Lloyd had to keep dodging, for he knew blocking the other's attack was futile when he was obviously physically weaker than the man. He heard a loud clang and spared a quick glance towards Ion's direction. He saw the newcomer standing before Ion and facing the masked kid who was kneeling due to his injured leg. He couldn't tell anything about the newcomer apart from the fact that he was on his side as the man had covered his head with a hood and was wearing a black cloak. The only reason he knew he was male was because his voice sounded like a boy around Luke's age. In fact, it sounded oddly similar to the red haired noble he befriended recently.

"Who are you?" Sync sneered at the cloaked figure who had snatched Ion away from him.

Instead of replying the God-General, the cloaked figure stepped backwards and got closer to Ion. He whispered something to the Fon Master to which Ion nodded and said something back to him. He started casting again and Sync ignored the pain and dashed forward at a much slower pace than before to stop the man from finishing the spell.

"Stalagmite!" The cloak figure yelled out just before Sync got to him and quickly brought up his sword to block the punch the God-General was throwing his way. Another loud clang was resounded when the blade of the cloaked figure and the metal gauntlet of Sync met.

Lloyd was still dodging to the left and right when he felt something underneath his feet. He saw rock spikes rose from the ground where Largo was standing on and knew the cloaked figure had cast the previous spell to help him. He quickly jumped away as far as possible and watched as his enemy, who hadn't expected the attack at all, took the full impact of the magic, a spell not unlike the mid-level Earth-elemental magic in his own world.

Sync jumped backwards and did several back-flips till he got to where Largo was getting up from the ground. "Tch. If this goes on, we might be the ones in disadvantage." He glared under his mask at the cloaked figure and Ion as they cautiously made their way to the twin swordsman. The cloaked figure had his sword trained on them the whole time. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a certain someone climbing down the ladder on the cliff that linked the abandoned factory to the field they were in.

He smirked. "Maybe we can use this to our advantage. Largo, get back to the Tartarus and prepare to leave. Let me handle this" He raised his voice and shouted across the field. "Hurry up and kill him so we can take the Fon Master away!"

The cloaked figure started looking around him, thinking that there was another enemy hidden, but at the same time confused at Sync's action. If there were additional enemies they hadn't noticed yet, then it would be stupid for the God-General to give away their positions. He gripped Ion's shoulder and pulled the boy closer to him just in case.

"Give Ion back!" Luke shouted and before everyone, apart from the two God-Generals, could register what was happening, the cloaked figure had whirled around and raised his sword to block the attack from the red haired noble. His movement was so great that the hood fell over and revealed long flowing red hair. The two crossed swords and Luke was able to look at the face of the man before him close-up.

Luke gasped and his eyes bulged at the face before him. It was the same one he had seen whenever he looked at a mirror. To add to the effect, the falling rain had smoothed down the slightly different hairstyles the two were wearing, making them look like they were just standing on the different sides of the same mirror.

"What do you think you're doing, you idiot?!" The originally cloaked boy snarled and with all his might, pushed Luke away.

"Stop, Luke! He isn't-" Ion was unable to finish his sentence when Sync hit the back of his neck with a chop and fainted. Sync picked Ion up and started running away.

"Ion!" Anise shouted the moment she got off the ladder and saw Ion being carried off.

Luke finally snapped out of his stupor and saw the one that shared the same face as him cursed and also started running towards the Tartarus. "Wh- what is the meaning of this?" He whispered and suddenly covered his mouth with his hand as he felt bile rising up and slid down to the ground due to the mental shock. He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Lloyd looking at him worriedly.

In the distance, Sync shouted for the Oracle Knights to start up the Tartarus and jumped onto the moving vehicle with Ion still draped over his shoulder. He swiftly climbed onto the bridge and disappeared into the cabin of the warship. What he didn't notice was the other red head had also jumped onto the accelerating vehicle, but he only barely made it. He gripped tightly onto one of the metal pipes dangling outside the exterior of the warship due to some previous damage to keep himself from falling.

"Ion!" Anise shouted again while running forward, but she couldn't do anything as the Tartarus got further and further away from them. The Six God-Generals had once again successfully captured the Fon Master. "Ahh! I let them get away!" She deflated and walked back to where Luke was recovering from the mental shock and getting up from the ground with the help of Lloyd.

"He... he looks like me..." Luke whispered and stared at the direction in which the Tartarus disappeared to.

"What does this mean?" Natalia asked.

"Isn't he the one that attacked us near St. Binah? If I remember correctly, Cantabile called him Asch." Guy asked.

"Huh?" Anise didn't know about that since she wasn't with them when they went to St. Binah. "But it seemed he was protecting Ion and not the other way round." It was clear that they would have gotten Ion back if not for-

"Luke! You should read the situation better before rushing blindly into it." Natalia scolded.

"Hey! It's not my fault! How would I know that Sync is such a sneaky bastard?! And that guy was covering his whole body with that ridiculous cloak that just screamed suspicious!" Luke protested loudly.

Ever the peacemaker of the group, Guy stepped in before their arguments could escalate any further. "Don't be like that, Natalia, Luke only wanted to help Ion. It's only natural to assume a cloaked figure as someone suspicious, and that guy did attack us with the intention to kill before."

"Lloyd." Tear called out to get the attention of the red clad swordsman and started tracing some words on the ground with the end of her staff.

Do you know him?

Lloyd shook his head and Tear sighed, knowing that she couldn't ask more complicated questions. She doubted the brunette would be able describe to them what really happened with his current knowledge, or lack thereof, of their language anyway.

"Regardless, we now know that Lloyd isn't working for the Six God-Generals." Jade stated, not wanting the others to dwell too much on the young man that had the same appearance as Luke. He knew who that boy was, it was quite obvious especially after they had taken the fon disc from Sync. He had told the others that the data on the fon disc was about isofon research. Anise and Guy even brought up the long ago abandoned fomicry research. However, if they still hadn't guessed the truth, he wasn't going to tell them either. There were things in the world that were better left unsaid.

"I told you!" Luke said in annoyance.

"And since we've now encountered the Six God-Generals. The decoy is a failure." The Malkuthian soldier continued and promptly ignored Luke's outburst.

"Wouldn't we better off returning to Baticul and going by ship then?" Guy asked.

Natalia shook her head. "It would be a waste of time."

"Why?" Luke asked.

"Father still doesn't trust Malkuth. He'll have sealed the port against invasion once he dispatched the decoy." Natalia explained.

"Let's go by land and search for Ion. If the Fon Master were to die, it could affect this entire peace effort." Tear said.

"That's right!" Anise cried out. "Please, search for Ion! Even if it's while you're doing something else. Please!" She pleaded.

Jade looked at Luke. "It's your decision, Luke. Will we search for Ion as we go by land? Or will we turn over Natalia to His Majesty and have him unseal the port?"

Natalia stared at Jade with wide eyes, she hadn't thought he would suggest something like that. Heck, she hadn't thought it's possible. She quickly turned to Luke. "You can't do that! Luke! You know what I mean!"

"Everyone shut up!" Luke snarled and the whole party fell silent. "Why am I the one deciding, anyway?"

Jade shrugged. "Well, you're the one in charge, aren't you?"

Luke's eyebrow twitched as he sneered at Jade. "You really are obnoxious."

He looked at the group. He wanted to go back to take the ship, that way they could get to Chesedonia and rejoin Master Van faster. But then there's Ion and Natalia. He couldn't care less if they went back to Baticul and turned over Natalia to his uncle. After all, the princess had sneaked out of the city to go after them and to Luke, she was nothing but an annoyance. However, if he did that, she would tell the others that Master Van was the one that kidnapped him seven years ago and that he wanted to leave Kimlasca after this whole goodwill ambassador business.

He didn't want to become Kimlasca's pet dog. Together with Master Van's help, he would neutralize the miasma in Akzeriuth and become a hero. Then he would escape to Daath and become a member of the Oracle Knights under Master Van, the very thing he wanted to do before Master Van's plan to take him away to Daath failed and he lost his memories seven years ago as his master had told him. If Natalia were to say anything to the King or the others, they would find a way to stop him and he would continue to be trapped in his own home and only let out whenever they wanted him to use his power for their own desire.

It was troublesome, but he didn't have any other choice now. "We go by land! We'll have all sorts of trouble if we don't take Natalia along."

"What about Lloyd?" Tear asked.

Anise borrowed the staff from Tear and tugged onto Lloyd's sleeve to draw his attention.

We are going to save Ion. Will you come with us?

Lloyd nodded.

"That settles it then." Guy said.

"Yes. It would be a great help if-" Jade paused and looked at Luke. "Oh, I'm sorry. It's up to you to decide, isn't it?" He said in mock apology.

Luke narrowed his eyes at Jade dangerously before turning to the others. "Yes, we are bringing him with us. He doesn't have anywhere else to go anyway."

"Master is so kind!" Mieu chirped, having been remaining silent during the whole discussion like Lloyd because he didn't really understand what was going on, just that he was to follow the one that saved his life.

"Shut up, you are annoying!" Luke said irritatingly and kicked at Mieu, earning him a squeak from the cheagle.

"Stop it, Luke!" Tear scolded and picked up the cheagle from the ground. "What's gotten into you?"

"Humph." Luke snorted and turned his head away from Tear.

"Ion..." Anise whispered. "Where could they have taken him?"

Jade looked at the direction in which the Malkuthian warship disappeared to. "The Tartarus was headed east from here. That's the direction of the oasis."

* * *

Asch pressed his ear onto the door to listen for movements in the corridor. He had entered the warship through a large hole on the wall of what he supposed to be a storage room. The hole was so large that at least three people could go through it at the same time. Judging from the size of the hole and the darkening edges of it, he deduced that it must have been caused by a mini explosion, most likely when the Oracle Knights invaded the ship. It was strange that they hadn't filled up the hole yet, though he supposed they didn't really have the time to do so. It was even stranger that no one was stationed in the room to prevent people from entering.

However, it seemed that the Oracle Knights did have some common sense after all when Asch heard movements outside the room. He guessed that there must be other broken walls or windows in the other rooms, and thus to make things easier, they simply decided to have soldiers patrol the corridor where any invader had to go through if they wanted to get to anywhere.

When Asch thought about it, this was actually a better way to guard the interior of the ship. If there were just two or three soldiers in the room, he could have easily dispatched them without alerting the others. However, if he were to engage in battle with the Oracle Knights in the corridor, everyone would immediately know there's an intruder and would be able to call for back up or even inform Sync or Largo.

He moved away from the door and let out a defeated sigh as he leaned against one of the non-damaged walls. Although he had successfully infiltrated the Tartarus, there's nothing else he could do now. He hated to admit it, but he wasn't good enough to take down all the Oracle Knights in the narrow corridor and make sure none of them had the time to call for back up.

In the end, Asch decided to wait for them to reach their destination. If their plan was to have Ion remove the Daathic seal, then they would likely just stop near a Sephiroth and had someone take Ion to it. He would rescue the Fon Master when that happened. Though the chances were both Sync and Largo being the ones to 'escort' the Fon Master, at least he didn't have to deal with the many foot soldiers on the warship.

He sat down near the door so he could hear the activities in the corridor and started to wait. Looking out through the large hole of the room and judging from the scenery, he knew they were travelling east. He didn't know where any of the Sephiroth were located, except the Absorption Gate and Radiation Gate, which were located in the north and south pole, as it was common knowledge. Judging from their purpose, there should at least be one in every continent, otherwise they wouldn't be able to uphold the whole Outer Lands and suspend it in midair. Since Baticul was in northern Aberria and they were travelling east, he supposed the closest Sephiroth would be somewhere in the desert, maybe near the oasis.

He didn't know how long he had to wait, but he couldn't lower his guard in case some Oracle Knights suddenly decided to check the storage. He hated not doing anything, especially when two of the Six God-Generals were just nearby and one of them knew the full details of Van's plan.

Dist had told him that not all the God-Generals were privy to the whole plan. The only ones that knew the whole plan were Largo, Sync and Legretta, the first because he was the first God-General and had been working with Van the longest, the second because helping Van to overturn the Score was his only motivation to live and Van trusted him wholeheartedly because of his unique situation, the last because she was also Van's personal assistant. Arietta was only concerned about finding ways to at least make Ion look her way again and to help Van because the Dorian General was the one that introduced her to _her _Ion.

Dist, although being something like the backbone of Van's plan, had in the beginning made it clear to Van that he was only helping him because he offered him a position in the Oracle and because of Nebilim's replica data, though that wasn't true anymore. Van would have to be stupid to let someone that was only working for him due to mutual interest in on the full details of his plan. He didn't know about Cantabile and had first thought that she was also only privy to as much of the plan as Dist, but that was before he knew Cantabile changed sides.

Right now, they only knew that Van wanted to replicate Hod and the Isle of Feres, the islands that were destroyed during the Hod War, and maybe also the people that died because of the war, and that he had been conducting experiments on artificial hyperresonance. He didn't understand what Van wanted by gaining access to the Sephiroth. He had once played with the idea of Van wanting to do something to the passage ring, but he dismissed it soon after as there were three seals in total that protected the passage ring, though Kratos had told him that one of them had become inactive ever since Hod collapsed.

He knew that even if he miraculously defeated both Largo and Sync and had the chance to interrogate them, the possibility of them telling him anything was next to none. He had to remind himself that he wasn't here to interrupt whatever Van's doing, he was just investigating. He was only supposed to step in if he or Kratos didn't like what Van's going to do, and so far just replicating destroyed islands didn't seen that bad, okay, maybe not also the dead, but they would worry about it when the time came.

However, when he saw Sync taking Ion to Tartarus, he had the sudden urge to save the kid and before he knew it, he had already cast Icicle Rain at the masked God-General. Maybe it's because he knew that every time the child Fon Master used his power to remove a Daathic seal, a part of him just... disappear... and he didn't want Ion to die. He knew people dying was inevitable and he couldn't protect everyone, something he had once foolishly wished to do when he was still just a nave kid thinking that he would become the King of Kimlasca, but Ion was just too young to die.

* * *

It was a bit after noon the next day when the Tartarus finally stopped. Asch looked out and noticed that they were still in the desert. After waiting for another few minutes to make sure that the warship wasn't going to move again anytime soon, he walked over to the destroyed wall and pressed his body to the undamaged part of the wall next to the hole. He peeked at the desert below him and after he was sure no one would notice him, he slowly climbed down to the sand covered ground.

Asch moved to the edge of the huge warship and from his position saw Largo walking down the stairs of the hatch, but Sync and Ion were nowhere to be seen. _Maybe Largo was to send to do some scouting first? _He drifted his gaze to the front and saw stone pillars sticking out of the ground. An entrance that looked like a stone gate was erected in the middle.

_Looks like some kind of ruins. So the Sephiroth is in- _His thought was cut off by a round house kick aimed at his head. He didn't see the attack coming until it was too late and, although he managed to avoid taking the full force of the kick by jumping away, his cheek was still bruised. He jumped several more steps backwards to widen the distance between them and unsheathed his sword.

He looked up and saw Sync smirking at him. "Well, well. What do we have here? A foolish rat that thinks he can get away with sneaking onto the Tartarus? Oh, I know, you want to play the hero and rescue the Fon Master from the villains. What an admirable and foolish way of thinking!" Even before he finished the last word, Sync began dashing towards Asch at a breakneck pace.

Asch readied his blade and narrowed his eyes. He slashed horizontally from right to left when Sync got close enough. The God-General jumped into the air but Asch had anticipated it and swung his blade diagonally upwards. Sync used the metal plate of the gauntlet on his right hand to block the sword, creating a loud clang. With their weapons still engaged, Sync kicked hard at the right and unprotected side of his opponent's torso. Asch was sent crashing into the hot sand several meters away. He slowly got up from the ground using his weapon as support. He tasted iron on his tongue and spat out the small amount of blood in his mouth.

"Don't kill him, Sync. We need him for our plan." Asch turned his head to the side to look at the owner of the voice and saw Largo standing another few meters behind him.

This was bad, in his frenzy to rescue Ion, he had somehow forgotten that he was also Van's target. He had taken to always wearing the cloak to cover up his feature, even now. But Sync and maybe also Largo must have seen his face when the hood fell over because of that idiotic replica of his. Or maybe they hadn't seen it, but just his red hair and the reaction of the replica were enough to clue them in on who he was.

The situation was similar to when he was ambushed by Cantabile and Legretta, but worse. Although both Cantabile and Legretta were fast whereas Largo wasn't, they were in an open area without any cover and Sync could easily outrun him in this sandy terrain. He heard more footsteps and cursed. Even if he successfully evaded both God-Generals, there were still many Oracle Knights he needed to get pass.

He was still thinking of a way to get out of this when he noticed the area became a bit darker than before even though there's no cloud in the sky. He knew what's going on and started looking around for the best escape route.

* * *

"Divine one that shines like silver upon all," fonons danced around Kratos as he channeled the required energy for the powerful arte and the area started darkening, "bestow upon me your holy power and send forth heavenly flames to cleanse all that stand against us!" He pointed the tip of his sword to the sky. "Shining Flare!"

The Oracle Knights started looking around with bewilderment as the surroundings became even darker before four walls of light suddenly appearing out of nowhere trapping them. The semi-transparent walls started closing in and the soldiers went to gather in the middle to avoid contact with the walls. He heard Largo and Sync shouting orders to the Oracle Knights to stop panicking. However, there were too many Oracle Knights and before long, the white flame that composed the walls was raining down on those that were outermost. Those that were hit cried out in pain before dropping to the ground.

The remaining Oracle Knights became even more disorganized after witnessing the effect the walls of light had on their colleagues and the two God Generals could only do so much to restore order. Asch used the confusion to slip past the God-Generals. Since Asch had Kratos' friend-or-foe marking[1], the arte wouldn't deal any damage to him. He rushed past all the soldiers to where he noticed Kratos was.

"The arte will last for another few seconds." Kratos said and turned away. "Let's go, the Dark Wings is waiting for us."

Asch frowned as he ran after the mercenary. From the man's tone, he knew Kratos was not happy with him. It was indeed his fault that he was nearly captured by the Six God-Generals. He would have been taken to Van if Kratos didn't show up when he did. He wasn't afraid of Kratos, but he didn't like to be on the receiving end of his glare, so he didn't say anything about rescuing Ion.

They ran in silence for another fifteen minutes before the Dark Wings and their car came into view. "Asch! You are okay!" Noir exclaimed when the two red heads stopped before them.

"Noir, can you take us to Chesedonia?" Kratos asked, not waiting for Asch to catch his breath to respond to Noir's exclamation.

Noir nodded and called for Urushi and York, who had also gotten out of the car to do some stretching as they had been driving non-stop since yesterday evening, to prepare to leave. Kratos had just joined them when they saw the Tartarus sped past them and the mercenary said he saw Asch on the warship through a destroyed wall, though how he could tell that was Asch remained a mystery to the Dark Wings.

"Why Chesedonia?" Asch asked once they were sitting in the car on the way to Chesedonia.

"We are going to Daath."

Asch arched an eyebrow but didn't say anything. If Kratos didn't elaborate, then it just meant that it's something he didn't want the Dark Wings to know. He could wait till they parted ways with the Dark Wings before asking questions. But there's something else he needed to know now. "What is the name of that ruin?"

"Zao Ruins." Kratos replied.

Asch nodded. He closed his eyes and started to concentrate. He hadn't done this before but Dist had told him what he needed to do to establish a connection between him and his replica. Speaking of which, Dist never had the chance to tell him whether they were perfect isofons or not. Though the replica was pathetic, he hoped that they were perfect isofons so he could at least let him and his group knew where to go to save Ion.

He focused on the vibrations of the fonons in his body. Moments later he saw the Desert Oasis before him even though his eyes were closed and he was still inside the car. He knew the connection was made and he was seeing through the other's eyes.

_Answer me, answer me! _He demanded and saw through his replica's eyes that he had placed a hand on his head and was kneeling down, must be because of the headache that Dist said the replica would have every time he tried talking to him. He ignored the tightening in his chest when he saw Natalia rushing over and asked 'Luke' if he's feeling alright, choosing to instead focus on thinking how pathetic his replica was.

_Answer me, you dreck! _He 'saw' his replica closed his eyes and soon after the replica kneeling before him in what he supposed was their shared mindscape.

Luke's face was contorted in pain as he slowly opened his eyes. _Who... the hell... are you!?_

_You know who I am._

Luke glanced up and finally saw the owner of the voice. _Asch! You... you left with the Tartarus! Where's Ion!?_

_Zao Ruins. Now hurry up and get your pathetic ass over there._ With that, Asch cut the connection, not wanting to spend even a tenth of a second more with his replica.

* * *

"So why are we going to Daath?" Asch asked. He and Kratos were currently aboard the ship to Daathic Bay. He would have asked sooner, but the mercenary seemed to be in a hurry so he had waited till now.

"We have to warn Dist." Kratos answered.

Asch blinked, that was his least expected answer. "Huh? Why? Warn him about what?"

Kratos nearly sighed. "Did Dist not tell you about the conditions Cantabile set for him?"

"You mean how she would tell Van about him working with us if he-" Asch paused, finally understanding what Kratos was talking about and why he's in such a hurry. "But it was me, not him, that tried to save Ion."

"It doesn't matter. Cantabile knew we are working together." Kratos said.

"So we are getting him out of Daath?"

Kratos shook his head. "He is still one of the executive officers in the Oracle. Van won't do anything to him in the open and he is still needed for fomicry. Dist is no longer wanted by Malkuth so Van couldn't threaten him with giving him to the officers of Malkuth."

Asch crossed his arms. "So if he's not in any danger, why are we in such a hurry?"

"I don't know what exactly happened between Dist and Cantabile nor do I know if it's true that Cantabile's not telling Van anything yet because she didn't want to put Dist in danger. But I'm sure she understands that fomicry is the main key to Van's plan and none of his other researchers can replace Dist at the moment." Kratos looked at Asch in the eyes. "What would you do if you are Van?"

Asch thought about Kratos' words for a while. He tried to put himself in Van's shoes. "I would find a way to ensure his loyalty by... taking someone important to him hostage?" He drawled out the answers uncertainly. "Wait." Asch widened his eyes. "You mean the one in danger is Reiner? Is that why we are going to Daath even though Dist might not be there? To take Reiner away from Daath?"

"Yes and no. We are telling Dist first and let him decide what to do with Reiner himself. I'm sure he's well aware of the risk and already has something prepared for such situation."

* * *

**~ Skit: Natalia's hero? ~**

Guy: What is it, Natalia? You keep glancing at Lloyd every now and then.

Anise: I know! You fell in love with him, right? Don't worry, I am sure you can just call off that silly engagement any time. (smaller voice) Then I'll be able to marry Luke and become rich.

Natalia: What!? No!

Guy: Then why? You also acted strange when we first introduced Lloyd to you.

Natalia: I was just making sure that Luke's not making friends with people that has any ulterior motives.

Anise: (started to leave)

Luke: Like I couldn't judge myself!

Natalia: It's your first time making friends outside your manor since you lost your memory!

Luke: Control freak!

Guy: Luke, Natalia is just worried.

Luke: Humph!

Guy: But Natalia, you didn't react the same way when we were introducing the others. Have you seen Lloyd before?

Natalia: No. He just... he just reminds me of someone I know.

Tear: You mean the Phantom Warrior? You know him personally?

Natalia: How do you... ?

Guy: Ah... well... when we first discovered that Lloyd is his relative, we sort of had a discussion about the validity of the rumors about him and I mentioned that you are-

Jade: He told us that you are a huge fan of his.

Natalia: What!? Guy! I'm not a fangirl!

Guy: No! Th- that's not what I said!

Anise: (suddenly rejoined the conversation) Is it true? You have seen him before? What does he look like? Is he rich?

Natalia: Umm... fine, I know him, but don't tell anyone about it.

Anise: Sure. But why?

Natalia: He doesn't like fame and I respect his wish to remain hidden. Let's see... his description is the same as the rumors and Lloyd does look like him. I don't think he's rich, he's a travelling mercenary after all.

Anise: Tch.

Tear: He speaks our language? I mean, he and Lloyd are related so they must have come from the same place.

Natalia: Yes... I can't remember clearly... but I think there's quite a strong accent when I first met him, though it's much better when I met him during the Northern Battle of Chesedonia.

Jade: I see. It's possible that he's also new to our language.

Tear: Do you think the reason that not much people know about him is that he can't communicate with others that well?

Natalia: No. I was five when I first met him. Apart from the accent, he's already quite fluent.

Guy: That long ago? And you still remembered him when you saw him again during the last war?

Natalia: Guy, you should have at least remembered his name. He's the one that saved me and Luke when we were kidnapped. But I suppose it's been so long ago that even father had forgotten about him, not that he had met him in person before.

Luke: I had been kidnapped before _that_ and he saved us?

Natalia: Actually, he's partly the reason Van became your teacher.

Luke: Huh!?

Guy: Oh I remember now, Luke had been ditching one swords master after another because he couldn't find anyone as good as Kratos until Van showed up.

Tear: Then why didn't the Duke just ask the Phantom Warrior to teach him?

Luke: Of course it's because Master Van is much better than him.

Natalia: … I don't know who is better... but it's because Kratos refused.

Anise: What!? How could someone refuse that position!? What a waste!? I mean, think of the salary one could get! What about... (continued ranting)

Tear: Anise?

Jade: Don't mind her, her brain is just overloaded.

* * *

[1] Friend-or-foe marking: fonists can mark their allies with invisible markings that reacted to their own fonon frequency, making it possible to prevent friendly fire by having their magic attacks pass harmlessly by those who were marked with their own markings. The alternative was when a fonist is going to use a large area spell to boost the status of his/her allies, only those marked would be affected, preventing the caster from accidentally boosting the status of his/her enemy/enemies. However, the spell would only pass by/react to those that are marked only if they are within the fonists' field of view. It is possible for each fonist to have their own unique marking as no two people should have the same fonon frequency.

**Author's Note:**

**Kathiryn Orlinski **- Thanks for pointing out that terrible grammar mistake, I have already edited the chapter and corrected it ^^

I didn't make up the friend-or-foe marking. It's in the game. If you're interested and have the game with you, you can go to the library in the palace in Grand Chokmah. I think it's in the rightmost room. One of the documents has information on this friend-or-foe marking.

Arte used in this chapter:

**Shining Flare** – same as the one that was exclusive to Rem of TOE, I think you can find it in youtube if you want to know what it really looks like, though I make up the incantation myself... I guess you would be amazed if I tell you that the idea of the incantation came from Slayers (I like the anime, and I think the incantation of some of the spells there are quite cool).

Incantation: "Divine one that shines like silver upon all, bestow upon me your holy power and send forth heavenly flames to cleanse all that stand against us! Shining Flare!"

_Uploaded on 30 July 2013._


	9. Life Principle

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 8: Life Principle**

Lloyd looked at the group he was travelling with. He first wanted to tag along because he thought the man that spoke his language would show up again. Next he met Natalia who apparently knew Kratos personally and thought he was even closer to seeing his father again. After that, he was only trying to do the correct thing and went after Ion. And it quickly turned into a rescue mission for the green haired boy.

They had ventured into a large underground ruin called the Zao Ruins and had fought against the two enemies, Sync and Largo, whose names were told to him by Guy. They had stopped in the middle of the fight, and, although he couldn't make out any of the words said, he understood that they were calling for a cease fire and the two God-Generals were _allowing_ them to rescue Ion to avoid the whole ruin collapsing on them.

Later when they were travelling to Chesedonia, Luke had enthusiastically informed him they were joining up with his swords master and they would then go to a city called Akzeriuth together. Tear had explained to him they were going to Akzeriuth under the King's order to save the people there who were suffering from the miasma that had come up from underground.

He didn't know the details, but apparently Van, Luke's teacher, had already left by the time they got to Chesedonia. They were about to leave Chesedonia when Guy suddenly attacked Luke. It turned out that Sync had planted a curse slot on Guy and could control him using his memories. Ion mentioned that the slot's power varied depending on the proximity of the user and so they had quickly boarded the ship. And the blond swordsman had returned to normal after that.

He wasn't sure why, but Luke seemed to be annoyed at everyone twenty-four-seven ever since they left Chesedonia. He wondered if that's because he really wanted to travel with his master. They were now in a place called the Deo Pass and Guy had let him know that they would reach their destination once they passed the mountain range.

"Man, at this rate, we'll never catch up to Master Van. We shouldn't have wasted time in the dessert." Luke said irritatingly.

Lloyd shifted his attention to Luke. It was strange, but somehow he was able to understand bits and pieces of their conversations when he woke up this morning. The words were still unfamiliar to him, but his brain registered the meanings of them, just like how he was able to read their writings, though he could only understand the simple words for the time being.

For example, what he heard just now was 'Man, at this... we'll... up to... Van. We shouldn't have... in the...'. He had a hunch on why he was suddenly able to understand the words that came out of their mouths. However, if this went on, he might have to try to keep up his act of not understanding their language. After all, it would look very suspicious and weird if he were to suddenly understand them when he couldn't do that just a minute ago.

"What do you mean 'wasted time'?" Anise glared at the red haired noble.

"I mean wasted time. We don't need Ion anymore. The war won't start as long as I'm around."

Anise's eyebrow twitched as she glared angrily at Luke. "You moron."

Luke stumbled in his steps at the sudden insult from the girl that was always complimenting him. "H- hey!"

"Luke, even I thought that was arrogant." Tear said coldly.

"This peace is based on the respect the Malkuth Emperor and Father have for the Fon Master. Without Ion, there would be no mediator." Natalia glared at Luke alongside the other two girls.

Ion shook his head and stepped up to defend Luke. "No, it's not that either country holds respect for me. They merely want Yulia's Score. I'm not really needed."

Although Guy normally would have defended his young master like what Ion was doing, but he didn't like how the Fon Master dismissed himself as if he was just a burden to them and thought that it was really better for them not to rescue him. "I can't agree with you there. You carry weight as a deterrent, Ion. Even if you do owe it to Yulia's Score."

"I see. You're all still young. So, how about we get going now?" Jade cut in with his cheerful but at the same time a bit hollow voice and ignored the bewilderment on the others, except Lloyd, at his out of the blue sentence as he marched on, not at all concerned if the others were following him or not.

Guy shook his head at the man's antics. "How does he pull out a line like that at a time like this? You can never tell what that guy's thinking."

Though no one made another comment after that, the damage was already done and there was a small distance between Luke, who was taking the lead, and Mieu, who was being they loyal servant he was and followed closely after his master, and the others as they continued trekking through the mountain range. Lloyd didn't need to have a full grasp on the conversation to know that Luke had said something that angered the party, so much so that only Ion had stood up for him. However, what he didn't understand was that from what he picked up, Luke had said something about Ion, yet the boy in question was the one that defended him when even Guy, who he knew was Luke's best friend, seemed to have stood on the girls' side.

He had thought Luke was their leader when he travelled with them to Zao Ruins, but from what he had witnessed so far, Luke was only the leader because the King wanted him to be. It didn't help that Luke had informed him he had only met the others, apart from Guy and Natalia, a little over a month ago. Speaking of a month, imagine his surprise when he saw a calendar and noticed that a month here had fifty eight days, which was nearly two months in Aselia. And, according to the calendar system here, he had also been here for a little over a month, about some time after Luke said he first met Jade, or before that, as Lloyd didn't know how long he had been unconscious when he first landed in this planet.

They were climbing upwards when Lloyd's advanced hearing picked up small but frequent pants. He glanced behind and saw Ion dragging his fragile body up the slope, looking about to collapse in exhaustion any moment from now. He slowed his pace so that he was also behind the group and walking next to Ion. He was thinking of a way to let the boy knew he could carry him on his back when Anise also noticed Ion's condition.

"Ion!" She exclaimed worriedly and jogged to where Ion and Lloyd were.

The other members of the group also turned around at Anise's voice and noticed the exhausted state of the Fon Master. "Are you all right? Do you want to rest a bit?" Tear asked worriedly.

"No." Ion huffed out. "I'm fine." He said, not wanting to be a burden to the others again.

"No, you have to rest!" Anise chided the stubborn Fon Master, then she turned to the others. "We're taking a break, everyone!" She announced.

"A break? What are you talking about?!" Luke sneered. "Master Van's gone on ahead!"

Natalia whipped her head at the irritated boy. "Luke! There's no harm in resting a little!"

Guy nodded. "Yeah. This is a tough mountain path. There's nothing we can do."

"I _am_ the ambassador! If I say we go, we go!" Luke snarled and glared at the others.

Jade and Guy had an unreadable expression on their face while Tear, Natalia and Anise glared angrily at Luke. Lloyd knew what's going on, he would have to be an idiot to not understand the situation. And truth be told, he was disappointed at Luke. He knew the boy was eager to meet his master, but even to the point of ignoring his comrade's well-being?

"Listen, you!" Anise shouted angrily at Luke from her position next to Ion but stopped and looked at Lloyd in surprise when the twin swordsman suddenly lowered himself to the ground before Ion with his back to him, silently asking the boy to get onto his back.

"Lloyd." Anise paused, not knowing what to say, both because of Lloyd's kind gesture and his inability to understand her. But she figured that he should have picked up some basic in the past weeks they spent together. "It's okay." She shook her head to emphasize her point. "You don't have to-"

"If Lloyd's offering it, just get on with it! We have wasted enough time as it is." Luke snorted.

Anise balled her hands into fists. "You-" She paused when she felt a hand on her arm and turned to see Ion shook his head.

"It's okay." Lloyd said slowly so that the others could understand his heavily accented words and grinned at Anise and Ion.

"Thank you. Lloyd." Ion smiled sadly at Lloyd before handing his staff to Anise and slowly climbed onto the back of the brunette.

After Lloyd had Ion securely on his back, Luke was about to shout for them to hurry up when Jade suddenly cut in. "Now that that's settled, let's continue on." He turned around and continued walking, ignoring Luke.

"Tch." Luke glared at the back of the Malkuthian soldier.

"Luke." He turned his head sideways and saw Tear walking up to him while the others continued on after Jade.

"What?" He asked irritatingly.

"I don't know why you're in such a hurry, but you could do with less attitude."

Luke sneered. "What are you talking about? I don't have any 'attitude'."

Tear's stare became even colder than before. "Fine, never mind." She said icily and walked away.

"What's her problem?" Luke kicked a rock on the side of the road hard. "Dammit."

"Master..." Mieu said sadly as he looked at his irritated master.

* * *

Kratos and Asch materialized on the central warp circle in Welgaia. They had tried to contact Dist once they were close enough to Daath that they were within the range of the communication device the scientist invented, but apparently the man wasn't in Daath. They then decided to use the communication device on Derris Kharlan and had gone to the forest near the city where the warp circle that allowed passage to Derris Kharlan was hidden.

Kratos had only walked a few steps when an angel stopped in front of them and informed them that Dist was already in one of the labs waiting for them. Not sure why he was in Derris Kharlan, especially when Van had started his plan, they went to the lab.

When they entered, they saw Dist sitting before the computer that was linked to a medium sized fomicry machine. The machine was assembled several years ago for the replication of the Rune Crest. Although the device was ready, the technology was not. Fomicry was still a wobbly technology and they needed to make one hundred percent sure that nothing wrong would happen to the replicas of the Rune Crest first. However, seeing as how the bespectacled God-General was furiously typing at the keyboard, he might just have found a way to perfect it.

Kratos and Asch walked over to where Dist was but the man still didn't notice them, too absorbed at his own task. Kratos was about to call out to him when Asch ran up to the unsuspecting man and slammed down a hand onto his shoulder.

"Aaahhh!" The scientist screeched and shot up from the chair, knocking Asch's hand away. He whirled around to see who was behind him and saw Asch and Kratos standing a few steps behind him. Without missing a beat, he pointed angrily at Asch, who had a smug look on his face. "What do you think you are doing?!" He snarled.

"What? Thought I was a ghost and got all scared?" Asch smirked, the smug look still in place.

"Insolent brat!" Dist screeched. "Just you wait! I'm putting this down-"

"- in your revenge journal." Asch finished the sentence for Dist, making the man even angrier. "How many times is my name already mentioned in there anyway? Just how long do I have to wait till you finally take your so called revenge?" He taunted.

"You!" He pointed furiously at Asch then at the door of the lab. "Out in the training ground! I am going to teach you to respect your elders _now_!"

"Great. Let's see who gets to wipe the floor with the other." Asch snickered.

Dist snorted. "Don't be so cocky, brat, did you forget who won in the last round?"

Asch rolled his eyes. "Oh please, that was a long time ago. Do you seriously think I haven't improved since then? Oh wait," he smirked, "are you saying _you_ haven't improved since last time?"

Kratos sighed and decided to step in, as much as he wanted to see how the two fare against each other as it was indeed a long time since he last saw the God-General fight as the man had been busy with all the devices in Derris Kharlan whenever he came, they didn't have the time for it now. "Dist, there's something we have to tell you." The two stopped their bickering and turned to Kratos. It's been always like this, whenever the two got together, they would spend a very long time bickering until Kratos stepped in, similar to when Cantabile showed up during their training sessions.

After he was sure that he had the scientist's attention and that Asch wasn't going to interrupt, he started informing Dist of what Asch had done and how that might jeopardize his position as a spy. He also told the man what he and Asch had discussed while on the ship to Daath.

After Kratos finished talking, Dist's shoulder slumped. "I knew something like this would happen..."

Asch had an apologetic look. "Sorry, if I had given more thought on the matter-"

"Don't be," Dist shook his head, "you were only trying to save Ion, any sane person would do that. And my cover's bound to be blown sooner or later."

"What are you going to do?" Kratos asked.

"I am going to ask for a transfer for Reiner to the branch in Keterburg. I have talked to Nephry about that and she has agreed to look after Reiner for me if something like this happens. I already have the paper work ready. All I need is a signature from the Fon Master or the Grand Maestro."

Asch frowned. "But Ion was captured. Are you going to ask Mohs? Will he agree?"

Dist paused, he hadn't thought of that. "Eh... that's a problem..." He sighed. "Mohs knows I am from Keterburg and would think something's up if I ask him." He shrugged. "You said you asked Luke to rescue Ion, right? Guess I will just have to wait till he comes back to Daath then."

"What about you?" Asch asked.

"Huh?" Dist blinked. "What about me?" Realisation dawned to him and mirth filled his eyes. "Are you worried about me?" He waved a hand in dismissive nature at the boy's indignant look. "I am a Locrian Colonel. I can handle myself. Mohs still thinks I am on his side and Van still needs me to do something for him anyway. If that's not enough, there's still Ion."

Kratos nodded and decided to change the topic. "Have you found out anything about Van's plan?"

"Ah. Umm..." Dist rubbed the back of his head with a hand. "About that... I was occupied with something else and hadn't..."

Asch rolled his eyes. "What a useful spy you are."

Dist dropped his hand and glared at the boy. "Hey! I need to input the data as soon as possible!"

"What? Afraid of forgetting your precious data? Does that mean you have a short memory span like a goldfish?" Asch snickered.

"Dist," Kratos cut in before another bout of bickering could start, "are you talking about the parameter settings for creating perfect isofons?"

Dist reluctantly turned his attention to Kratos and nodded. "Yes, but that's for replicating living beings, so I still have to do some fine tuning. It should be ready to use after I do some test runs to make sure everything's okay."

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I need a test subject that's of a similar size as the Rune Crest. It also has to be devoid of all types of fonons except the Seventh Fonon. After the replication, we need to wait for at least a week to see if there's any side effect, I will say two weeks just to be safe. Since this time we are going to mass produce the replicas, I also have to see how it will affect the original by mass replicating the test subject... if nothing goes wrong, I can start replicating the Rune Crest in twenty weeks."

"There's no need to rush. Now that Van's started to move, we might not be able to come back to Derris Kharlan as often. We can have Shadow and Rem 'restart' the conversion of the Cruxis Crystals if need be." Kratos said, though he didn't want to come to that if possible.

It's true that doing so could boost up the energy of Rem, but it was also slowly killing Shadow. Although the Aggregate Sentience of Darkness didn't say anything, he, Rem and Gnome knew that changing the fonon frequency of the Seventh Fonon in the Cruxis Crystal made Shadow take in even more mana. They had found that it wasn't so much of a mistake that Shadow accidentally took in mana all those years ago but a step required to change the fonon frequency.

Shadow knew, but he simply decided not to say anything and let the others think it was a mistake when it first happened. However, when his face contorted in pain after their first time 'restarting' the conversion of the Cruxis Crystal, they knew it was more than just a mistake and had asked him about it. Shadow reluctantly told them that he had to draw the fonons into his own body to change the frequency, and since the fonons were too interlaced with mana, there's only so much he could do to separate the two different types of energies. Then, when he expelled the altered fonons from his body, some of the mana had already clung to his own fonons.

The only reason he hadn't fallen victim to the side effects of having mana in his body was that he had an half elven body. But Origin hadn't known something like this would happen and had only reconstructed his body to suit the amount of mana Shadow had at that time. After all, if he gave too much of his energy to Shadow, then Pluto would also have to give more to balance it out and it wouldn't do to make Shadow overly strong. Not to mention that too much of the Summon Spirits' power would alter the nature of the Aggregate Sentience.

The mana one could draw from a tiny crystal wasn't much compared to that of a human being, much less the Aggregate Sentience of Sound, but it's not just one Cruxis Crystal they were talking about here. There were nearly a thousand angels in Derris Kharlan. Nearly a thousand Cruxis Crystals that Shadow had to work on. After the first time, they had decided to only perform the extraction when most of the mana was converted into Seventh Fonon to lessen the toll on Shadow.

According to the calculation, they still had another two years before all the mana in the crystals disappeared. If the Rune Crests weren't ready yet, they would do the extraction in one and a half year's time. However, Kratos hoped it wouldn't have to come to that. He didn't know, nor did he want to know how much mana Shadow's body could withstand, and he certainly did _not _want to see what would happen to an Aggregate Sentience when they had too much mana in their being.

"By the way, are you sure that yours and the one on the previous leader's corpse are the only Rune Crests here?" Dist asked.

"Yes." Kratos answered despite founding the sudden change of topic a bit weird.

Dist furrowed his brows. "Is there, by any chance, an angel here that also has a Rune Crest and has regained his humanity?"

"Not that I am aware of."

Asch arched an eyebrow. "What exactly do you want to ask?"

Dist glanced at Asch. "It's about an abnormality Kratos noticed when he came back from the Radiation Gate. The detectors here had picked up a tiny spike of mana near Tataroo Valley."

"You have found the one giving off the mana signature." Kratos stated. "And you think it's a wayward angel from Derris Kharlan."

"But shouldn't that have caused a commotion if that's the case? The angels here all have that overly large wings." Asch asked.

"Yes... but apparently that angel can hide his wings like Kratos. In fact, I only know that he's an angel because of the crystal on the back of his hand and the golden stand of it that has to be the Rune Crest. Hmm... " Dist stared at the auburn haired angel intensely. "Now that I think of it, although his fashion sense is strange and nothing like you, he looks like you. He also feels a bit similar to you when I was dodging his attacks. Lorelei knows how hard it was to evade two swords at the same time."

Kratos felt his heart skip a beat at the description. "W- was he wielding a red and a blue sword?"

Dist blinked, he had never heard Kratos stutter before. Asch also looked weirdly at the mercenary. "Yes. You know him?"

Kratos closed his eyes, ignoring the questioning looks on the two before him. He inhaled and exhaled a bit shakily. Questions like 'why was he here' and 'how did he come' raced through his mind, but all he could hear was the pounding of his own heart. He tried to reign in his rampaging emotions. After a while, he opened his eyes. "His name is Lloyd Irving Aurion. He's not an angel from Derris Kharlan."

"Lloyd Irving Aurion?" Dist blinked. He had heard the name before from Kratos. "Wasn't that the name of your..."

"Yes, my son." He said with a soft voice and Asch and Dist swore it was the most gentle tone they had ever heard from the stoic man.

"Your son... " Asch muttered. Kratos had also told him a bit about his family during the past seven years and he had been greatly honored that the man had trusted him with his past. "But how did he... ?"

"I have an idea, but first we have to find out where he is." Kratos said.

* * *

Ion lightly tapped the shoulder of the man carrying him. "Thank you. Lloyd. I'm okay now."

The red clad swordsman paused in his steps and slowly let the boy down from his back. It'd been twenty minutes since he offered Ion to ride on his back and they were now walking downhill. He was still a bit reluctant to let the boy walk on his own as he knew how fragile Ion was from what he had seen in the past weeks he spent with them. However, walking downhill while carrying someone on their back was a very dangerous thing to do and Lloyd doubted he could pull it off in his current state.

He had been in this planet for quite a long time already, but he could tell that his body still hadn't fully recovered yet. He had thought it weird at first, but then he remembered that he was not the only one recovering from mana exhaustion. Verius, the Summon Spirit of Heart, was resting within his mind and no doubt taking his life mana to recover from his own mana exhaustion. It also didn't help that he had been constantly using his already limited mana to battle.

Verius still hadn't woken up yet, but when Lloyd thought about it, it's possible that his ability to understand the foreign language was due to the Summon Spirit of Heart. He remembered Verius telling him about memory sharing. The age old Summon Spirit might, for some bizarre reason, know this language and was 'sharing' his knowledge with him. And although still unconscious, Verius might be able to 'share' more with him as he recovered more mana. It would explain why he could understand the written language and only get to know the simple words of the spoken part of it since this morning.

Ion was walking on his own again, but both Lloyd and Anise decided to walk side by side with him so they could help the Fon Master whenever he needed it. Anise had also refused to give the staff back to Ion, saying that she would only give it back to Ion after they left Deo Pass or if Ion was going to use it as a walking stick. However, since the staff was too short and was the symbol of the Order of Lorelei, Ion wasn't going to use it as a walking stick.

They had walked for another thirty minutes when they finally saw the end of the mountain range and could see Akzeriuth in the distance. However, they were halted by two bullet shots that were aimed at the ground just before them. They looked up and saw Legretta the Quick standing on the cliff several meters above them.

"Stop!" The God-General barked. "Tear, why do you continue to spend time with those people?"

Tear stepped up. "I'm under orders from Grand Maestro Mohs. What about you, Major Legretta? Why are you kidnapping Ion and travelling to the Sephiroth?"

"To win freedom and free will for human beings." Legretta answered cryptically.

Tear furrowed her brows, that was the reply she least expected from her ex-teacher. "What do you mean?"

"This world is completely controlled by the Score. People read the Score for anything they do. The Score rules their lives. Don't you think that's wrong?" Legretta threw back the question.

Although Ion didn't see the connection between the two, he answered the question nonetheless, as Legretta was addressing them all, not Tear alone, when she asked the question. "The Score doesn't exist to control people. It's merely a tool to help them follow the correct path."

"That's what you said. Yet your very presence here is because of the Score." A new voice joined the conversation and soon after they saw another familiar figure walked up to stand next to the gun wielding God-General. There were several gasps at the appearance of the newcomer.

"Major Cantabile!" Tear exclaimed. She was confused, she first thought Major Cantabile was also after Ion, but then she left them without even glancing at the Fon Master and had saved them from Asch. Then Asch turned out to be against the Six God-Generals and was trying to save Ion. She had thought that since Major Cantabile seemed to be working with Asch, she was also against the other God-Generals. However, she's standing next to Major Legretta now as if it was the most natural thing.

"Tell me, Tear, why did they choose _him_ as the goodwill ambassador?" Cantabile asked.

Tear stumbled at the sudden question. "Th- that's because the Score... but!"

The violet haired God-General nodded. "Even though you know how bad a choice it was to choose _him_, people are still going along with it because that's what the Score says."

Luke fumed at the insult. "Hey! What do you mean a bad choice?!"

Apparently Anise agreed with Cantabile as she ignored Luke's outburst, choosing to reply Cantabile instead. "But if the Score shows the future, then it's best to live as it says..."

Guy nodded at the Fon Master Guardian's words. "The Score you get read on your birthday is a useful reference."

"Yes." Natalia nodded. "And you hear your life's Score, from the moment you're born, so..."

"In the end, relying on the Score makes life easier." Jade concluded.

"That's what I'm talking about. This world is mad. Someone has to change it. Tear! Join us." Legretta shouted.

"I still don't trust my brother, and you're his loyal partner. Until my suspicions towards him are cleared, I can't return to you." Tear said.

Cantabile unsheathed her katana. "Then we'll stop you by force!" She jumped down the cliff and landed before the party.

* * *

Asch stared at the huge fonstones before him. It was his first time coming to the back room behind the forbidden archive of the Order of Lorelei. Though to be fair, he hadn't been to the Cathedral since Van kidnapped him. He was hiding from the _Commandant_ of the Oracle after all.

From what Dist said, the fonstones here were not the original fonstones that recorded Yulia's Score, but a compilation of the Score written in the numerous fragments of the originals. Even the Order of Lorelei didn't have all the fragments of the original fonstones as the ownership of them belonged to the ones that found them. However, since a Scorer from the Order was needed if people wanted to know the contents of the fragmented fonstones, they were able to temporarily took the fonstones back to the Order so that Scorers with high clearance could copy its content and compile all the Scores that were ever read. Of course, there were also people that willingly gave up the pieces they discovered to the Order.

The fonstones here also recorded the Closed Score and so only the higher ups in the Order could know about it. Dist had used his position as the Commander of the Second Division to also let Kratos and Asch came to this room, though of course, the two red heads had their cloaks on so others wouldn't know what they looked like.

"I've found the one that recorded events from ND 2000!" Dist called out and waved for Kratos and Asch to go to him.

There were too many fonstones here and since it's also the first time Dist and Kratos came, none of them had any idea where the one that stored the information they were after was and had to split up to search for the one that recorded the most recent events. They gathered at where Dist was standing before one of the many fonstones that just looked the same as the others and would have been overlooked if not for the small label on the platform it was placed on.

They decided to check out the Score because Kratos thought that Lloyd was also predicted in the Score. It's plausible, especially when Kratos himself was also predicted. Kratos walked up to the fonstone and placed a hand on it. There was a soft green glow as Kratos slowly scanned the fonstone for the Score that foretold events in the past few weeks. The process was very slow as it was only the second time he read the Score from a fonstone. The first time being thirteen years ago in Mount Zaleho when he first met Evenos, the previous Fon Master. That's why they also didn't know if what they were doing was according to the Score or not.

Kratos himself had refused to read the Score as he was not interested in knowing which part of his life was being predicted and which not. He knew the people on Auldrant liked to follow the words of the Score, even those that didn't heavily rely on it still wanted to know what's written in it and told themselves that they would only think of it as a reference. However, to him, a being that hadn't even heard of the Score for the majority of his life, knowing his own future was simply too weird, and he wasn't going to start relying on it ever.

No matter what people might think, once they had the knowledge of their own future within easy reach, it's only natural that they would want to know how their lives would turn out. And once they knew what's going to happen, even if they said they weren't going to follow it word by word, they would still unconsciously take the 'advice' of the Score. It's true that there would always be people that rebelled the Score, but the Score was in fact the planet's memory and no matter what they did, they still wouldn't be able to deviate from the Score.

After several minutes, the glow disappeared and Kratos removed his hand from the fonstone.

"How is it?" Asch asked.

Kratos lightly shook his head. "He's not mentioned in the Score."

Dist frowned. "But the Score has you in it... wait," he went into one of his 'thinking mode', "you once said that Evenos wasn't able to search for me as he didn't know my birth name. What name did you search for? Lloyd Aurion or Lloyd Irving Aurion?"

Dist had once asked Kratos why his son had two surnames as Irving sounded more like a surname than a middle name. The angel had told him that Irving was in fact the surname of his dead wife. Lloyd had taken it as his family name because of an accident that tore the family apart leaving Lloyd to be raised by a dwarf and he hadn't known his real surname until they were reunited when he was seventeen. And now the surname Irving had become the middle name in remembrance of his mother.

Kratos inwardly chided himself at the mistake, how could he have forgotten something so important? Maybe the happiness of being able to meet his son had clouded his judgement. He would have to be more careful from now on. "You're right. I should have searched for the name Lloyd Aurion instead." He placed his hand on the fonstone again and re-scanned it, this time searching for Lloyd Aurion, or dawn of holiness [1] in Ancient Ispanian.

* * *

**~ Skit: The color of Cruxis Crystal ~**

Dist: Say, Kratos, is there any Cruxis Crystal that's not red?

Kratos: Mine isn't red. You have seen it before.

Dist: I know. But yours is different...

Asch: What do you mean different?

Dist: You know how the other angels have feathery wings while Kratos' wings are made of mana, well, Seventh Fonon now, and Kratos can hide his wings at will, right?

Kratos: My Cruxis Crystal had undergone some upgrade. There were projects to make them more powerful.

Dist: Then why isn't the others also using the upgraded Cruxis Crystal?

Kratos: The... cost was too great. And the previous leader wanted some deviation between the normal angels and the Seraphs.

Dist: So the upgraded Cruxis Crystals have a different hue than red?

Kratos: Only the first batch have a different color. The others are made so that they are still red.

Dist: Huh? Why would they do that?

Kratos: It's a bit complicated... the simplest explanation would be that there's a tradition we had to follow and it would look strange, and some people might even be scared, if we suddenly changed the color of the Cruxis Crystal.

Dist: The first batch... how many?

Kratos: Three. But mine is the only one in Derris Kharlan right now.

Dist: Do they have different colors?

Kratos: No. All of them are green.

Asch: Why are you so interested in their color all of a sudden?

Dist: Just curious.

Kratos: The one Lloyd equips is called the Angelus Sphere. It's the evolved form of Cruxis Crystal and is blue. That's what you want to know, right?

Dist: Yes... wait, the evolved form of Cruxis Crystal? You mean it's even more powerful than yours?

Kratos: Yes. That's the only successful outcome of the Angelus Project, the last project to upgrade the Cruxis Crystal, before the previous leader died.

(Kratos left)

Dist: Say, did you notice that Kratos is more talkative than before? I mean, he's always very patient, but today he just seems different.

Asch: Right. Normally he would just drag you over to an angel when you ask your fourth question. But today he endured all your annoyance, even giving out information before you asked the question.

Dist: I guess knowing his son is here is a really pleasant surprise to hi- wait, (angry) what do you mean my annoyance?!

Asch: Exactly what I said.

Dist: You! I'm putting this down-

Asch: - in your revenge journal. Geeze, you just said that less than twenty minutes ago. So when are we having the fight to settle your 'revenge'?

Dist: (took out his scythe) Now!

Asch: (unsheathed his sword) Gladly!

(Kratos suddenly came back)

Kratos: Are you two done yet so we can hurry?

Dist: ... fine. (reluctantly removed his scythe) But listen there, brat, I am so going to wipe the floor with you the first chance I have.

Asch: (slowly sheathed his sword) Are you sure you are up to it, old man?

Kratos: (death glare) Did I not just say that we need to hurry?

Dist, Asch: ...

* * *

[1] The name Lloyd originates from the Welsh adjective _llwyd_. Although the word has other meanings, it held the connotation of 'holy' during the medieval period. Aurion means morning in Greek. Since I translated Kratos' name to 'dawn of strength' in Ancient Ispanian (see A/N of Ch.5 of FI), Lloyd Aurion became 'dawn of holiness'.

**Author's Note:**

**Kathyrin Orlinski –** It's true that there were no cars in the game, but the Dark Wings indeed had a car in the anime. Due to my relying on rewatching the anime more than replaying the game to refresh my memories, I guess you can say that the world here would be a mix between both the game and the anime. The fonstones being in a secluded room and not in the main hall of the cathedral was also from the anime.

Have heard people saying that the surname Irving came from Anna, and have also heard some saying that it came from Dirk. I decided that, at least in this fic, Irving would be Anna's surname.

The tradition Kratos was talking about in the skit was the Regenation Journey. The Chosens of Regeneration were supposed to be born with a red crystal in their hand that told the others that they were the Chosen Ones. It would be weird if one day a Chosen was born with a green crystal instead. As for the color although the game never showed Kratos and Yuan's Cruxis Crystal (from my understanding, the red gem on Kratos that he showed to others was simply an Exsphere for his cover), Mithos' Cruxis Crystal was green while Colette and Zelos' Cruxis Crystals were red.

I'm not sure about Presea's... I think hers was just a normal Exsphere. It's mentioned in the game that Rodyle tried to cultivate the Angelus Sphere from Exsphere, not Cruxis Crystal. I also think that Rodyle wasn't as 'good' as Kvar in this refining the Cruxis Crystal business, which was apparent, seeing as Rodyle had to steal from Kvar's research. Presea's Exsphere still hadn't 'evolved' after 12 years even though it still had the ability to stun the host's growth. My speculation is that once the special Key Crest was made for her, all the 'progress' Rodyle made with her Exsphere was reverted and it became a normal Exsphere again.

_Uploaded on 3 Aug 2013._


	10. Converging Paths

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_; Character reading; _"Lloyd's language"_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 9: Converging Paths**

A loud clang resounded when Guy's katana crossed with Cantabile's and the two were locked in a stand still. "This style of fighting..." Guy muttered and widened his eyes. "You are-"

He would have said more if not for the one eyed female suddenly jumping upwards to dodge Lloyd's horizontal slash from behind. Cantabile twisted her body and landed a kick at Lloyd's head. Using the force of the kick, she propelled herself into the air and gracefully landed on the ground several meters from them.

"Demon Fang!" She cried out the moment her feet and the tip of her blade touched the ground. Lloyd and Guy jumped away as a blue projectile, one that was larger than Guy's own version of the attack, was sent their way. When Lloyd landed, Cantabile was already less than a meter before him with her blade lowered to the ground on her side.

"Beast!" Lloyd had been focusing too much at her weapon and wasn't prepared to for the slamming attack. He was knocked further back when a blast of energy in the shape of a lion head was created due to the power of the attack, blasting him away.

He got up from the ground and wiped the tiny drop of blood sliding down from the side of his lips. He watched as Guy fought off their opponent using the same sword style. He had freaked out a bit when he saw Guy using similar attacks as him when they were in the ship to Baticul fighting off Oracle Knights. He had told himself a long time ago to stop wondering about the strangeness of this world, like how Anise's doll could enlarge and how the girl was able to control it with her mind. However, facing an enemy who used his own style of attack, one that he first thought he invented himself until Kratos pointed out to him that he had seen something similar before, in a planet Origin knew how far away was from his own planet was too weird.

"Heal." Lloyd felt something coursing through his body and knew that Natalia had patched his wounds up with her healing spell. He only felt a dull throb from his wounds due to his angelic senses to begin with, but it wasn't like he could tell Natalia to just focus on healing the others as he didn't need it as much as the others.

He spared a glance at the others to see if he should help the them instead as Guy seemed to be doing fine. Jade and Luke were engaged with Legretta some distance away. Anise was standing on the back of her enlarged doll before Ion to protect the Fon Master. Natalia and Tear were using their healing artes to heal the fighters.

Luke held up his sword and blocked a bullet Legretta shot at him. The agile God-General evaded Jade's spear and rushed at Luke who was lowering his blade. She did a back flip when she was close enough to the red haired boy and successfully kicked his sword away. Before Luke could react, she already had one of her guns pointing at his head. However, before she could do anything else, a small knife flew at her gun and knocked it away. She grunted as Jade chose that moment to thrust his spear at her. She performed another few back flips to get away from the Necromancer but she wasn't fast enough and the spear had inflicted an injury at her ankle.

Legretta toppled to the ground near her gun and knelt down. She hissed at the pain, she couldn't move as fast as before with this wound. She swiftly picked up the gun and pointed both her guns forward. "Tear! Why are you helping that reject?"

"Reject?!" Luke, who had just retrieved his sword from the ground, whirled around and pointed the tip of his blade at Legretta furiously. "You talking about me?!"

Jade froze for just a split second before regaining his composure, most of it anyway. "So it _was_ you people who resurrected that forbidden technology!" He snarled.

"Jade, no!" Ion shouted from his position next to Anise and the Fon Master Guardian had to 'order' Tokunaga to use its arm to block the agitated boy from running into the battlefield. "There are some things people are better off not knowing!"

Jade shifted his attention to the green haired boy and slightly widened his eyes. "Ion... you knew?!" Yes, he had his suspicions about Ion, but to think the boy himself knew what he was and who the ones responsible of it were was just too much.

"What?" Luke directed his gaze to Jade then to Ion then back. "Stop leaving me out of the conversation! What are you talking about? It's something to do with me, right?!"

However, no one paid any heed to the boy's livid outburst as Jade's icy gaze that was full of cold fury fell on Legretta. "Whose idea was it? Was it Dist's?"

"Are you talking about fomicry? What good would it do you to know?" Legretta said dismissively, not at all fazed by the Necromancer's rare show of anger. "The die had been cast, Necromancer!"

"Over my dead body!" Fonons danced around Jade as he prepared the most powerful spell he could use currently. However, he had to stop his chanting and whipped out his spear to block when the other female God-General swung her katana at him.

"We are leaving, Legretta! You can't fight in your current condition." Cantabile shouted at her friend and pushed Jade back a few steps.

Legretta slowly got up from the ground. "Sorry, Cantabile." The she turned to her student. "Tear! Come back to us anytime! We'll be waiting for you." With that, she started getting away. Once Cantabile felt that Legretta was far away enough, she sheathed her sword and also retreated.

"Wait!" Jade barked and started to give chase to the retreating women. He suddenly jumped away and narrowly evaded a bullet shot his way. Knowing Legretta would cover Cantabile's escape, he opted not to give chase.

"Colonel?" Anise inquired a bit worriedly as the others also gathered by Jade's side. The Malkuthian soldier was always collected and it was unnerving to see him angry.

Jade straightened himself and schooled his expression. "I'm sorry. I lost control. I'm alright now. Let's hurry to Akzeriuth."

The others, except Luke, nodded, understanding that the man didn't want them to pry. They started walking away, leaving Luke and Mieu behind, the former still registering what just happened and the latter just faithfully stood by his master's side. "Damn it, you're keeping me in the dark on purpose! Tell me what the hell's going on!" Luke shouted in frustration.

The blue cheagle walked up to Luke and tried to comfort him. "Master, you mustn't get mad..."

Luke ignored Mieu and glared at the back of the others. "They all jerk me around and then act like I'm not even here! I'm the ambassador, damn it!"

"Master..."

"Why won't anyone tell me what's going on!? Why did Legretta call me a reject?! And everybody else is keeping all these big secrets from me! Stop making fun of me! I'm the ambassador!"

"Luke." Tear called out, having heard his complaint. The others had already left Deo Pass, but Tear noticed that Luke wasn't following and decided to go back to check on him. "Perhaps we could have explained things better, but if you're going to keep up that attitude..."

Luke glared at Tear angrily. "Stop preaching and shut the hell up you cold-"

"Stop being so childish!" The female soldier snapped.

"Shut up!" Luke shouted. "Master Van never made fun of me! He was always nice to me! He always explained things if I didn't know them! He-"

"So you're just a puppet who can't do anything without my brother around?" Tear asked sharply.

"What?!" Luke narrowed his eyes.

"Never mind." Tear started leaving, but then she paused after several steps and turned her head sideways to look at Luke. "But let me tell you something. You'd better start thinking on your own, or one of these days you're going to do something you cannot undo."

Luke glared at the back of the girl. Mieu walked up to him. "Master, please don't get angry."

"Then go away!" The angry boy lashed out at the cheagle. "Just leave me alone already! All of you! Master Van's the only one... he's the only one who understands!"

* * *

"ND2018. The dawn of holiness shall heed the call of his ancestor and through the link between them, he shall join the light of the sacred flame and follow the young scion of Lorelei's power to the miner's city." Kratos recited the Score. Although that's only the first sentence that had Lloyd mentioned in it, he decided that he had read enough.

"The light of the sacred flame... he's travelling with the replica?" Asch asked.

Kratos shook his head. "It shouldn't be correct anymore because of Luke's birth seven years ago." He knew how Asch felt about calling his replica by name, but no matter what he felt, his replica was still a human and Kratos refused to call him anything but his name.

"No. It's correct." Dist said. "Lloyd was with Luke's party when I saw him. And Asch, didn't you also mentioned that he was trying to save Ion outside Baticul?"

"Yes. Before that fool interrupted and thought I was the enemy." Asch said with bitterness. "And I also saw him again when I looked through that idiot's eyes when I told him where to look for Ion."

Dist rolled his eyes at the boy's beginning-to-get-annoying addressing of his replica. "Anyway, so the Score is right about Lloyd following Luke to the miner's city, which I suppose to be Akzeriuth. But if that happens..."

Kratos hand glowed green again as he sought the part of the Score about Akzeriuth's destruction. "The young scion of Lorelei's power shall bring his people to the miner's city. There, the youth will turn power to calamity and be as a weapon to Kimlasca, destroying himself and the city."

Asch frowned. "But Van's trying to overturn the Score. Why would he let the replica fulfill my part of it?"

"Maybe it's because he's not the real you?" Dist rubbed his chin. "The power here is referring to your ability to cause hyperresonance on your own. When Van wanted to replicate you, he specifically said he needed one that also has the ability to do that. And now that he knows you aren't dead, Luke is... disposable..." He dropped his hand to his side and lowered his head. "To Mohs and Van, the replicas... they are all disposable... so long as there's another one that has a more similar power to the original..."

They all knew that more replicas had to be made if they were really going to go along with Van's plan to overturn the Score, as to their current knowledge, only the presence of replicas could derail the Score. And Dist was the only one who could do it, even if he didn't want to. Well, the other scientists could also that, but they weren't as good as the God-General yet in fomicry.

Dist had let the others carry out the experiment again when Mohs wanted to replicate Ion while he supervised, and that had led to what they now dubbed as the tragedy in Mount Zaleho until Dist finally decided to do the replication himself due to the others' incompetence to create a perfect replica.

That tragedy had had a great impact on the scientist, so much so that he had even tried to commit suicide when he was in Derris Kharlan, though part of his sudden urge to do so could be due to Shadow talking to Kratos in the room next to the lab he was working in. After that, it had still taken them a long time just to get the man to tell them what the problem was and Asch had to agree that that was probably the most disturbing event he had ever heard of. However, Dist said that he had seen even more horrible ways to dispose failed replicas and Asch didn't want to even imagine what could be more disturbing than throwing newly born replicas into the mouth of a volcano.

But then it was a delayed reaction, because Dist was only hit by the full extent of all the inhumane treatment of replica half an year after that accident. According to the God-General himself, he had felt weird and maybe a bit sad when that happened, but he hadn't given much thought to it. Before, he had viewed the replicas as guinea pigs, nothing more, nothing less. It was only after he became friends with the Fon Master Guardian and, through her, the new Fon Master, that he finally understood why he had felt his heart clench when Mohs threw the replicas into the volcano. He wasn't able to see the replicas as mere guinea pigs anymore and all the past mistreatment he had indirectly taken a hand in when dealing with the failed replicas had finally caught up to him.

Kratos was about to say something when Dist breathed in deeply and looked up at them again. "The Score is talking about you, Asch, not Luke. As long as you aren't the one that die, Van would have successfully deviated from the Score." His eyes narrowed. "But due to the planet's memory, the only way to make sure that you won't die in Akzeriuth in the future is to destroy the city. And to do that..."

Asch widened his eyes as he finally understood what the Score meant when it said he was to use his power to destroy himself and the city.

* * *

Luke stood near the entrance of Akzeriuth and covered the lower half of his face with his arm. "Wh- what is this?"

Jade briefly scanned over the miasma covered city and took in the situation. "This is worse than I imagined." The concentration of the poison gas was so high that the purple mist had significantly decreased the visibility, making them unable to tell where the bottom of the city was.

The entrance guard, or who they supposed to be the entrance guard, was sitting against the cliff. He looked lifeless and dead to the world if not for the barely visible rising and falling of his chest. Natalia and Lloyd immediately went over to him and knelt down beside him. The princess started channeling the fonons in her body to heal the man.

Luke looked at Natalia with a mixture of worry and irritation. "H- hey, Natalia, they're dirty. Get away from them. You might catch something."

Natalia stopped her chanting at the words and felt as if a spike had pierced through her heart. The old Luke would never say something like that. She bit her quivering lips and turned to glare at the boy she once admired with all her heart. "What's dirty? What am I going to catch?! Don't say such stupid things!" She pushed back the pain she was feeling in her chest and turned back to the man to continue tending to him.

Guy seemed to want to say something, though no one knew if he was going to confront Luke or comfort Natalia when a man ran towards them. "Did you all come from the Kimlascan side?" He asked once he stopped before them.

Luke stared at the man. "Um..." He supposed he should say something as he's the leader, but truly, he wasn't sure what he's going to say.

"I'm Natalia, Princess of Kimlasca." Natalia walked over to the newcomer, having already healed the entrance guard, though he was still slumping against the cliff and Lloyd was helping him sit straighter so he could breathe easier. "We've come to offer aid at the behest of His Majesty, Emperor Peony."

The man's eyes lit up. "Ah! A man named Grants told us you'd be coming! My name's Pyrope. I'm the local supervisor for the mine here. The mayor fell ill, so I'm handling things in his place."

Jade stepped up. "Where are Dorian General Grants and the rescue team?"

"Grants is inside the mine. He's attempting to rescue our companions who collapsed there." Pyrope replied. He then turned around and started walking. The party assumed that he was taking them to the mine and fell in steps after him.

Lloyd picked up the man from the ground, hoping to find a bed for him to lie on. He was unsure what the miasma was when Tear first explained to him why they were coming to this city. There was never a problem of poison gas leaking out from the ground in Aselia so he couldn't comprehend the full extent of the seriousness of the situation. He had even felt a bit weird when Tear said they were going to rescue the people here. Not because of the rescuing part, but he didn't understand why the people here didn't escape on their own.

He understood why when he saw the numerous people lying on the ground and heard groaning from literally everywhere and managed to link it with one of Guy's explanation sometime ago. Apparently this miasma had a slow effect and the effect it had on people varied depending on their physique. By the time they noticed that they had to leave the city, too many had already fallen ill and they needed a rescue party to help with the evacuation.

_Maybe that's the reason Luke was in such a hurry? Because he wanted to save the people here as soon as possible? _Lloyd had automatically come up with this reason as he didn't want to think of his new friend, one that had the patience to teach him some basics of their language slowly, as someone that would lash out at his comrades without any reason or just the lame reason that he wanted to meet his master.

Guy noticed his young master was still rooted to his spot, the ever faithful cheagle by his side, and thought that he might still be in shock because of what Natalia said. "Luke, come on! Think how everyone will feel if they see us looking depressed."

"I'm not depressed!" Luke huffed crossed his arms.

"Then let's catch up to the others, we still have people to help."

Luke frowned. "But I'm the ambassador... I don't have anything to do."

"Huh?" Guy blinked. "There's plenty for you to do. Transport the injured, carry things-"

"But why do I have to do _that_?! That's not my job!" Luke protested loudly.

Guy frowned and stared at his friend with something akin to disapproval. "Luke..."

"W-what?" Luke stuttered at the look on his servant. He had never seen Guy looking at him like that.

"You don't honestly think that, do you? Look around you. Use you head. Come on, let's go." Then he also turned away and caught up to the others.

"Master..." Mieu whispered as he saw the look of shock on Luke suddenly became one of disgust.

"Tch. Carrying them off one at a time would take forever! I can use hyperresonance to get rid of the miasma in an instant like Master Van said. But first... I've to find Master Van." He said to himself and also started following the others to the tunnel.

He had only taken a few steps when a familiar splitting headache burst out and he clutched his head. "Asch, yo- you again?"

"Master! Are you okay?" Mieu cried out worriedly.

_Where are yo- you fool! Leave Akzeriuth now!_

"Wh- what are you talking about!? I'm saving the people here!" He gritted out and started shaking his head, wanting to get the other out of his head. He didn't know how, but the headache suddenly disappeared. He gave his head one last shake and ran after the others. Mieu frowned but didn't say anything else and followed his master.

* * *

"Tch. The idiot shook me off." Asch said irritatingly.

He and Kratos had left Daath immediately after they realised the horror of what Van's going to do. Dist would have come too but he had to look after Reiner so he stayed behind. They were going to the warp in the forest near Daath. From there, they would go to Derris Kharlan, set another warp's destination to where the replica and his group were and stop them from going to Akzeriuth.

"Where're they?" Kratos asked as he stopped on the warp.

Asch stood next to Kratos, also on the warp. "In Akzeriuth already." He called for the required amount of fonons to activate the warp and closed his eyes. He never felt comfortable using the warps and he closed his eyes whenever he warpped. He felt the familiar tug on his body's fonons. Moments later he opened his eyes and saw the city of Welgaia.

"You go to warp zero three first. I can get to the control room to reset the coordinate faster on my own. And if you pass by any angels, tell them to prepare several wing packs packed with Rheairds and medical equipment." Kratos drew out his wings and took off at a breakneck speed.

Asch nodded, even though Kratos wouldn't be able to see it, and ran to the designated warp. They had to hurry. It's impossible to set the coordinate of the warp destination to somewhere inside Akzeriuth as they didn't know the situation in the city. They also didn't want to know what would happen if a person was standing on the set destination or got stuck in something solid because of bad luck.

* * *

"Locrian Sergeant Grants!" They halted at the call and turned around to see an Oracle Knight coming up to them. Lloyd tensed, but upon seeing that none of the others had a similar reaction, he supposed this man was not here for Ion. He heard the man said the word 'Grants', perhaps he's looking for Tear?

His questioned was answered when Tear walked up to the man. "Grand Maestro Mohs had sent a message regarding the Seventh Fonstone."

Ion perked up at the mention of the missing fonstone. "The Seventh Fonstone!? Don't tell me it's been found!?"

"Fon Master!" The soldier saluted once he realized who the one that asked the question was. "We found a fonstone that might be it after the Grand Maestro sent a message to let us know that there's a possibility it might be here. But we can't be sure until we excavate it."

Ion nodded and looked at Tear. "Tear, please go confirm the Seventh Fonstone's authenticity. I'll go with the others and catch up to the vanguard."

Tear reluctantly nodded. "Alright. Please take care of the villagers." She then left with the soldier.

Several minutes later she felt something was wrong as they were leaving the city. "Is it not in the city?" She asked.

"We found it in one of the cliffs outside the city and it's too large to transfer it into the city."

Tear raised an eyebrow at that but didn't comment. If the fonstone's that large someone should have stumbled upon it already. She decided against commenting on it and silently followed after the Oracle Knight. They went to a cliff-side that Tear thought to be where the fonstone was held. However, when she stopped before the cliff and looked down, she saw something that shouldn't be here.

"Tartarus!" She gasped and whipped her head to the soldier beside her. "What's the meaning of this?" She narrowed her eyes and gazed sharply at the man.

She heard footsteps and saw Oracle Knights appearing from behind some of the larger boulders. _An ambush? _She went into her battle stance, prepared to fight her way out if need be. _But why me alone?_

"Lady Grants, please put away your weapon and come with us. We don't want to hurt you." The man before her said.

Tear recalled how Major Legretta and Major Cantabile had showed up with the intention to stop her and not catch Ion. It didn't make sense, but she could safely assume that the Six God-Generals, and maybe also Van, didn't want her to go to Akzeriuth.

"Judgement!" She heard someone shouted and reddish light pillars started raining down on the area taking out Oracle Knights here and there.

"Wh-" Tear stared in amazement when the soldiers that were hit cried out in pain before falling to the ground.

"Who's there?" The man nearest to Tear shouted after the pillars of light ceased falling onto them after several seconds.

The question was answered by several more cries and the sound of blade meeting metal and flesh. Tear turned to the direction of the source and saw two men plowing through the sea of Oracle Knights. Her eyes widened as she took in the appearance of one of them. "Asch!"

* * *

Anise bumped into Lloyd who had suddenly stopped. "Ouch! Lloyd, why did you stop?"

Guy glanced backwards at Anise's words and saw that the twin swordsman had indeed stopped. He also noticed the expression of shock on his face and walked up to him. "Lloyd, are you okay?" He asked, worried that the man was affected by the miasma but just didn't know how to tell them.

"What is it now? Master Van is just ahead!" Luke sneered, causing Natalia and Anise to glare at him.

Lloyd ignored the others and turned around so that he's facing the entrance of the tunnel.

"Lloyd?" Ion asked and placed a hand on the man's arm.

Lloyd blinked at the contact and looked down to see the Fon Master looking at him worriedly. "I..." He began, but didn't know how to continue. Both because he couldn't speak the language well yet and because he didn't know what to say even if he knew the words. Really, what could he say? He sensed someone, most probably his father, using an angelic arte somewhere outside?

He closed his mouth and drew it into a tight line. They were helping the people here... but if he didn't go after Kratos now, he might not be able to find him until long, and more might die in his world because of the delay. He still needed to wait for Verius to wake up, but he was sure the age old angel with a seemingly bottomless pit of knowledge would be able to help him with that too.

He looked longingly at the direction where that mana had come from. It's also been a long time since he last saw his biological father and he desperately wanted to go meet him now.

"There's something you have to do." Lloyd snapped his head at Jade. He could fully understand what the man had said and noticed that it wasn't a question.

Lloyd gingerly nodded. Maybe it's because of the tone. Or maybe it's because the man had rarely talked to him, he supposed that's because he's still wary of him and had been observing him during the time they spent together. The sentence had made him realize that his original purpose of tagging along this group was to fish for more information about Kratos and mana. He hated to admit it, but he needed to put finding Kratos his first priority. He had come here to look for him after all.

"Then go." Lloyd felt a non-explainable emotion swelled in his chest as he switched his attention back to the gentle green haired boy who had softly uttered the two words.

"We'll be okay." Ion continued. He was always very understanding to the others. Even in a situation like this where Lloyd was sure his action had confused the hell out of the others, evidenced by their dumbfounded expression at the weird exchange, Ion had managed to put Lloyd's need above his own.

Lloyd reluctantly nodded again. "Sorry." He whispered and ran away from them.

"Wh- wait! Where the heck do you think you are going!?" Luke shouted at the retreating back of the twin swordsman, snapping Guy, Natalia and Anise out of their stupor.

"What happened? Colonel, why did you... ?" Anise asked.

Jade shrugged. "Everyone has their own duty to perform. So should we continue now that that's over?" He ignored the raised eyebrow of the others and proceeded onward. He didn't want to explain why he knew that. The expression Lloyd donned when he slowly turned his gaze from Ion to the entrance of the tunnel... it's one that he had only seen on people that were choosing between life and death. He wasn't familiar with the expression himself but he had seen it countless times before that he could tell. He didn't know what triggered that reaction on the experienced and normally carefree swordsman, but he felt compelled to say the words out loud.

Guy frowned. They had established the fact that Lloyd wasn't a spy. But what had made the swordsman suddenly leave them? However, he knew Jade was a very cautious man and if the Necromancer felt that it was okay to let him go, he didn't see any problem with it. Though he still had a lot of questions floating in his head now.

"Tch." Luke snorted. Once again glaring at the back of the others as they went on. Everyone's like this, even Lloyd had to suddenly leave without his permission. He's the ambassador here, damn it. He was sure if he could get rid of the source of miasma like Master Van said, everyone would view him as a hero and start treating him the way they should.

"Where the hell is Master Van?" He muttered.

"Luke, let's go." Ion said when he noticed the red haired noble wasn't moving. He also heard the mumbled words. "We need to take care of the people in the tunnel first. Why are you so eager to find Van?"

"Well, Master Van's here helping people too. He'll know what I should do. I have to go find him first." Luke said as if it was the most natural thing of the world.

"Luke, the people here are counting on you, as the goodwill ambassador, to rescue them as quickly as-"

"I know, I know! You don't have to tell me!" Luke snapped.

"I see... very well, then." Ion was about to walk away when Luke suddenly cried out in pain.

"Argh! Not again!" He clutched his head with one of his hand and saw out of the corner of his eye Ion and Mieu standing next to him with worried looks.

"Master!" Mieu exclaimed.

_Don't take another step!_

"Sh- shut up!" He grunted out and soon the headache faded away.

"Are you alright?" Ion asked.

Luke let out a sigh. "Yes, it's passed now. Let's go."

* * *

**~ Skit: Lorelei's call ~**

Asch: Kratos, the Score says something about your son heeding the call of his ancestor. What was that about?

Dist: Ah, that's right, you don't know that part yet.

Asch: ?

Kratos: Remember when I told you that Lorelei was once a human?

Asch: Yes... wait, you mean you are Lorelei's... ?! But how?

Dist: Lorelei married someone from Derris Kharlan and that someone left Auldrant with their children because they're beings of mana and couldn't stay behind.

Asch: And one of their children was Kratos' ancestor. Damn, I know you have many world shaking secrets, but to be the descendant of the Aggregate Sentience of Sound... why didn't you tell me before?

Kratos: There was no need.

Dist: If it makes you feel better, I only knew it because I asked him about the ability to summon.

Asch: You mean pestered.

Dist: You-

Kratos: Dist wanted to know if it is possible for him to use the pact bracelet so I told him that I am only able to do it because of my heritage.

Asch: Why would you want to use it?

Dist: I just wanted to know whether others can use it or not.

Asch: Why can't the others use it then?

Kratos: It was made specifically to react to either Lorelei's fonon frequency or his blood.

Asch: Does that mean I can use it? Dist once said that my fonon frequency is the same as Lorelei.

Dist: No, the fonon frequency we are talking about here is that of the human Lorelei. His fonon frequency was changed when he became the Aggregate Sentience of Sound so the two are different.

Asch: I see... so naturally only Lorelei's descendant can use the pact bracelet then... anyway, do you think what the Score means is that Lorelei summoned your son or something similar?

Kratos: I think it's more likely that he was aiming for somewhere else but was caught up in the Seventh Fonon hyperresonance due to the compatibility between mana and Seventh Fonon.

Asch: Seventh Fonon hyperresonance?

Dist: Van's sister tried to kill him but failed when Luke intercepted. A hyperresonance happened when their weapons clashed as they were both Seventh Fonists and apparently Luke didn't know how to control his fonons that well. The hyperresonance sent them to Tataroo Valley.

Asch: How do you know that?

Dist: Of course it's because I'm an amazing and brilliant spy.

Asch: (rolled his eyes) Kratos, what do you mean he was aiming for somewhere else? I mean, how?

Kratos: His sword, the Eternal Sword, is an artefact that has the power to bend time and space. I suppose he used the sword's power to get here, though the power of it alone shouldn't be enough to travel this far...

Dist: Hey! Don't igno- wait, the power to bend time and space!?

Kratos: Origin, the Summon Spirit of Birth who has control over time and space, is the creator of the Eternal Sword.

Dist: Right... but he has two swords...

Kratos: He's already a twin swordsman when he became the Eternal Swordsman. Origin modified it to suit him. When he puts the two swords, Flamberge and Vorpal Sword, or simply the Material Blade, together, it becomes the Eternal Sword.

Dist: A purple sword?

Kratos: … did Lloyd use the Eternal Sword on you?

Dist: Huh? No.

Kratos: Then how do you know the color of it?

Dist: Isn't it obvious? I mean, he has a red and a blue sword. One gets purple when he mixes red and blue together.

Kratos, Asch: ...

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Reality Hacker **- Yes, Lloyd would be able to fly, but as you have guessed, it would be a while before he could do so. I also like the idea of Kratos teaching Lloyd use angelic skills, so yeah, I think I will add something like that later. I haven't put much thought about it before... so thanks for the idea^^

When I wrote the part about disposable replicas, I thought of episode 6 of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S. Devoted scientists wouldn't be able to see their test subjects as anything but guinea pigs unless something made them change their point of view.

I thought to make a skit where in the end Asch said something that made Kratos and Dist went '…' to make it a 'full circle', but I can't think of anything Asch would say to trigger a similar reaction from both men at the same time... I mean, Kratos had his death glare that shut others up, Dist had his 'amazing' logic that sometimes made others speechless because of its sheer silliness, but Asch... I don't think any qualities in his character can do something like that at all... though if you can think of something you're welcome to leave a review to tell me what he'd got and I'll try to come up with a skit to make it a 'full circle'.

Cantabile's artes in this chapter:

**Demon Fang** 魔神剣 _Majinken_

**Beast **獅子戦吼 _Shishisenkou_

_Uploaded on 11 Aug 2013._


	11. Blind Faith

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_; _"Lloyd's language"_; _Character remembering a past event_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 10: Blind Faith**

Lloyd dashed out of the mining city. He could tell the mana signature getting stronger the farther he ran and knew he was close. His enhanced hearing picked up the sound of fighting and knew his father was fighting someone and that's why he used his angelic spell just now. However, one thing he didn't understand was why the mana signature was still comparatively much weaker than when he last felt it before the man left with Derris Kharlan.

_Is he also recovering from mana exhaustion like me? _He mused.

The sound of fighting was getting louder and he finally saw a sea of Oracle Knights before him. He frowned at the ridiculously huge amount of soldiers. _Were they thinking of ambushing us when we leave to capture Ion again?_

That was when he saw a familiar figure killing the Oracle Knights, though not who he had expected. _Tear? Why is she here... wait, was that Oracle Knight just now actually luring her away? But why her..._

As he got closer, he finally saw the one he most wanted to see. Despite the situation, he felt his heart nearly burst from happiness and his face broke out into a huge grin as his gaze fell on his father. Kratos Aurion. The man he had constantly thought of ever since he left with Derris Kharlan and regretted letting go.

"_Dad!"_ He shouted, though it wasn't so loud that normal people could hear it over all the fighting, Kratos was far from normal and he knew the man would be able to hear him.

He saw Kratos briefly glanced at his direction and acknowledged his presence nodded, a smile on his lips. Lloyd wasn't discouraged by the lack of reaction on the man, a smile was already very good when it was coming from his stoic father. And if he had found Kratos through sensing his mana signature, he was sure his father had known about his presence since a long time ago even though his current mana signature had to be so weak that even elves would have trouble picking it up.

He saw an Oracle Knight creeping up at Tear from her back and looked to be about to knock her unconscious with his shield – _wait, not kill? – _and rushed over to her while unsheathing the Material Blade. _"Heavy Tiger Blade." _He slashed upward then downward with great strength at the soldier. He had put so much force in the downward slash that the armor had broken into pieces and the man crumbled to the ground, unconscious even before he hit the ground.

"Lloyd? Why are you here?" Tear asked once she killed the opponent before her and noticed the twin swordsman having dispatched a soldier she wasn't aware of.

"He's here because I called him." Tear looked to her right and saw the man that Asch had called Kratos coming up to them as he pulled his sword out of a soldier.

Lloyd looked at Kratos questioningly. He understood what Kratos had told Tear, but he didn't get why his father was telling the girl that he called him when he knew he was only here because he sensed the mana signature.

"_Lloyd, help me cover Asch and Tear as they escape."_ Kratos said as he effortlessly parried a sword swung his way by yet another Oracle Knight and pushed him back. He killed the man with a thrust as the soldier stumbled backwards due to the push.

"_Asch?"_ Lloyd asked, he recalled the others talking about someone with that name after their encounter with the one that looked like Luke. Was his dad working with him?

Kratos turned his head to the crowd of Oracle Knights. "Asch! You go with Tear to Akzeriuth to stop Luke first!" He shouted.

Lloyd followed Kratos' gaze and saw the boy that shared the same look as Luke jumping into the air to dodge a horizontal slash. He raised his fist above his head and punched the ground when he dropped down. "Fierce Demon Fist!" Rocks were sent flying forward, hitting and pushing his opponents away from him.

Despite being confused by the whole situation – _why do they have to stop Luke? –_ he followed his father's instruction and rushed over to help the red haired boy defeat the Oracle Knights he was facing.

He heard the boy grumbled a small thanks before heading to where Tear was. "Is it okay?" Tear asked.

Asch nodded. "They will be fine. We need to hurry before the idiot destroyed Akzeriuth." With that, he took off to the direction of the mining city.

Tear glanced back at Kratos and Lloyd one final time before giving a slight bow and hurried after Asch.

* * *

Purple. Purple. Purple. No matter where he looked, he could only see the purple of the miasma. Luke's eyebrow twitched in irritation as he waved his hand in front of him to disperse the thick purple mist so he could see clearer. His eyebrow twitched again when that didn't help his vision at all.

_Great. Just great. How am I going to find Master Van if I can't even see what's in front of me?_

"Luke." He turned around at his name and saw Ion standing behind him.

"What is it?"

"Aren't you going to help the others?" Ion asked.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Again? Haven't I already said that I need to find Master Van first?"

A brief look of hurt showed in Ion's eyes at the noble's reply. They had reached a large cavern a while back. There were a lot of miners who had fallen ill due to the intense miasma and the others had rushed over to either heal or carry them back to somewhere that didn't have as much poison gas. Ion had wanted to help too, but his weak physique made it impossible to help in any ways. He wasn't strong enough to carry them and if he used his fonic arte to heal them, he would be the one collapsing and it would just add unnecessary worry to the others. That's why he had been following the other member of their party who also wasn't helping the others.

Luke turned around again and resumed his search for Van. Ion wanted to say more to convince him. But it wasn't really his place to say something like that when he himself wasn't helping the others, though due to a different reason. He silently followed Luke as he searched blindly within the thick miasma that rendered their sight to near useless.

Luke was inwardly cursing his luck when he saw a shadow before him. "Master Van?" He called out uncertainly to the silhouette.

The shadow shifted, as if turning towards them, and Luke could hear his Master's voice answering him. "You finally made it."

"Master! There you are." Luke exclaimed happily and hurriedly closed the distance between him and Van. "Where's the rest of the vanguard?"

"I have them standing by elsewhere." Van directed his gaze at Ion and gestured the door behind him. "Fon Master, could I ask you to open this door?"

Ion examined the door before them and realized it's the same kind of 'door' he was forced to open by the Six God-Generals. "A Daathic seal. So this is another Sephiroth." He furrowed his brows, wondering if this meant that Van was the one giving orders to the Six God-Generals after all. But then even if he knew who's the one behind his capture, he still couldn't understand what this was about. "I don't think opening this will serve any purpose."

"It will. It's necessary for the revival of Akuzeriuth." Different scenarios ran through Ion's mind at the simple answer, but he couldn't find the link in between.

"Ion, please! Everything will be okay if you do what Master Van says." If Ion wasn't the kindhearted person, he would have rolled his eyes at Luke's tone, but all Ion did was turned to look at Luke and, when he noticed the look of slight desperation on him, smiled.

"All right." He walked forward and stopped right in front of the sealed entrance of the Sephiroth.

He raised his arms till they were shoulder level with palms opened and facing the centre of the seal. Sweat dripped down his cheek as he concentrated on the Daathic arte he had only learned less than a year ago to remove the Daathic seal and felt the familiar pull of Seventh Fonon from his body. The seal on the door was slowly being lifted as more Seventh Fonon left his body and he had to lightly bit the inside of his cheek at the uncomfortable feeling. When the seal was fully removed at last, he dropped his hands to his sides and had to dug his heels into the ground to stop himself from staggering.

"Let's go." Van said and started walking into the now opened Sephiroth. Ion nodded to himself once he found the strength in him to walk without faltering and fell in step after him.

Luke grinned and also started to follow the pair when another splitting headache halted his advance.

_Stop! Are you trying to destroy Akzeriuth!?_

He shook his head and felt the headache started lessening again. "What are you talking about? I'm just gonna neutralize the miasma here." He replied even though he doubt Asch had heard it as the headache had already completely subsided. He shook his head a final time and ran into the Sephiroth.

He slowed down as he took in the view before him, awed by the interior of the Sephiroth. It wasn't like anything he had seen before. However, he didn't paid too much attention and picked up his pace again so he could catch up to the others. He figured it to be something common in the world and he just hadn't seen it before since he had been locked up in his manor since he had amnesia.

"It's the same as Zao Ruins and Shurrey Hill..." He saw Ion standing on the pathway taking in the surrounding.

From the Fon Master's words, Luke knew his guess about it being common was correct. And his Master was proceeding without sparing a glance at his surroundings, so it had to mean that he had seen it many times before, right? "I'm going to be a hero, I won't let Asch stop me!" He reminded himself so that he would focus more at the task he had to do, like his Master.

Ion held up his hand as Luke got closer to stop him. "Luke, don't you think we should wait for the others?"

Luke waved his hand impatiently at the always worrying boy. "Master Van's here. Isn't that enough?" He walked pass Ion ignoring his outstretched arm. "And besides, I'm going to save Akzeriuth right now. Who's going to complain about that?"

Ion blinked, surprised at the reply. "What do you mean?"

"Just wait and see." With that, he resumed running along the passage that spiralled down to the centre.

* * *

Flamberge easily slid through the armour of the Oracle Knights due to its high temperature and into the man's stomach. Blood splattered when it was pulled out and the soldier crumbled to the ground lifelessly. Normally Lloyd would have winced at his own brutal way of killing, but not today. It wasn't because he was surrounded by dozens of enemies and was feeling nervous. It's quite the opposite. It's been so long since he last fought side by side with his father that he's feeling a bit giddy now.

He ducked and let a sword swipe over his head. He performed a roundhouse kick while still kneeling on the ground knocking down the one that just slashed at him. He got up and started skipping backwards as another man had come up the moment the one he was facing was down. He felt another one approaching from behind while he was still stepping backwards. When the man behind him was close enough, Lloyd jumped up as high as he could and let the two soldiers collide with each other. He landed behind the entangled soldiers and jumped up again, though this time not as high as just now, and curled himself up into a ball.

"_Omega Tempest!" _He started spinning horizontally towards the soldiers that were still untangling themselves from the other. Once they were caught up by the 'spinning ball', it bounced up high in the air. Lloyd released his attack mid air. He landed on the ground a few meters behind while the two soldiers, having lost their conscious in the middle of the twin swordsman's attack, dropped to the ground unceremoniously.

More man appeared before him and he slowly backed up. No matter how many enemies he cut down, there were still a lot of them standing around. He backed up a few more steps and felt his back bumped into Kratos, who was facing the other direction.

"_Your mana signature is weak, you are recovering from mana exhaustion." _Kratos stated. Though that wasn't a question, Lloyd nodded his head nonetheless. _"I will clear a path for you."_

Lloyd frowned. _"What!? You want me to just leave you? You are in the same condition as me, right?"_

Five soldiers came at them at the same time and they had to jump apart to avoid being impaled or hacked into two by the swords. _"No, __I'll explain later._ I'm going to use a large scale arte to finish them." Not taking heed of what the five soldiers were doing now, Kratos chose to face those in front of him instead and held up his blade. _"Follow me."_

A grin flashed on Lloyd's face when he saw the position of his father's sword and knew what he was going to do. He also got into position and faced the soldiers before them.

"_Cross Thrust!" _The Aurions rushed at the crowd with their own blades in a thrusting position and performed their own version of Super Sonic Thrust at right angle to each other. The force of the attack was so strong that not just the enemies that were caught in the huge cross were hit, but a small gust was also created blowing away nearby soldiers.

Before those that were swept off their feet by the gust could get up from the ground, Kratos was already holding his blade above his head as if preparing for a downward slash._"Radiant Streak!" _He brought the Last Fencer down till it was pointing towards the soldiers in front of him then jabbed it forward. A wide stream of light shot forward from the blade and sliced through the air. Lloyd watched in awe as the light beam extended to nearly fifty meters away from them before disappearing, creating a path void of any soldiers in its wake.

"_Now!"_ Though still a bit reluctant, he knew when to listen to his father's intruction and rushed through the cleared path.

Even as he ran, he could feel the slight tingling in the air and knew that Kratos was preparing for yet another powerful arte, which he supposed to be the large scale one he was talking about. What he didn't understand was the distinctive lack of mana. He had felt the familiar mana signature of the man when he used Judgement, though very weak. However, he couldn't feel anything when Kratos used that Radiant Streak attack. He had thought it as something like his Beast attacks and that's why there's no mana, but this...

He heard Kratos started chanting in the language of this world again and knew he was indeed preparing for a powerful attack. Once he was far away enough, he chanced a glance backward and saw that his father had called out his ethereal wings. He frowned as he couldn't sense any mana again. Then he noticed the slightly off color of the mana – _no, not mana anymore –_ wings. A large glyph appeared underneath Kratos with him at the center Transparent chains rose up from the ground dancing around the angel and those standing on the glyph paralyzing them.

_What is it? It looks like Shining Bind... but-_

"Shining Bind!" Lloyd's thought was cut off by his father's yell. Kratos rose into the air and more chains appeared and shot into the sky. Intense light enveloped the field and Lloyd had to cover his eyes to avoid getting blind. He heard the sound of explosion and their enemies' cries of pain followed by the sound of bodies hitting the ground and saw from behind his eyelids that the light was gone. He cracked open his eyes and saw that all the soldiers were lying on the ground, most of them unconscious. A few that were more resilient were still conscious and were trying to stand up but to no avail.

Lloyd blinked. He didn't catch the name of the arte as Kratos had said it in the other language, but it did look like Shining Bind. But then although he hadn't seen the attack in a long time, he didn't think the mystic arte involved things exploding, and there's still the issue about the lack of mana. He saw his father running towards him and shrugged. Kratos had said he would explain later anyway.

"_Let's go. We need to catch the soldiers that had escaped."_

Now that his father mentioned it, there were indeed a few that had gotten past them when those two escaped. _"Right. So can you tell me what's going on?"_ He asked as he fell in steps behind Kratos who had just ran past him.

"_The explanation is quite long. For now just know that we have to stop Luke from doing what his Master wants him to."_

Lloyd blinked. Just how involved his father was with Luke and the others?

* * *

Luke's running became walking and eventually he stopped when he got closer to Van and noticed the large statue in front. He lifted his head to gaze at the large statue, the translucent rings surrounding it and the glowing particles raising from below and seemingly enveloping it.

"Luke. This way." He heard his Master called and only then did he realized that he had unconsciously opened his mouth. He coughed to hide his embarrassment and to stop his gawking and strolled over to Van.

"Now, Luke, go down to that fon machine, the passage ring, and neutralize the miasma." Luke followed the Oracle Commandant's gaze and saw a small statue erected before the huge statue, which was in fact a fon machine according to his Master.

"What are you talking about? Is that even possible?"

He turned back at Ion's question and saw a look of bewilderment etched on the boy. A smug grin appeared on his face as he pointed at himself arrogantly. "Yeah, it is for me. I'm a chosen hero." He then ignored Ion and walked towards the small statue which he supposed to be another fon machine.

_That's it. I'll show all of them. I'll become the hero, just like Master Van said. Then I'll flee to Daath with Master Van. Yes, with Master Van..._ He had to stop the grin that was threatening to break out at the giddy feeling. He wanted to impress his Master by showing his seriousness at this neutralizing business and it wouldn't do for him to grin at a moment like this.

He raised his arms before him like Ion when he was opening the door and closed his eyes. _Let's see, I am to use my hyperresonance... it's alright, I just have to do it like Master Van instructed me before._ He felt something building up inside his body and knew he was close.

"Good, concentrate just like that." Van said. "Now, 'Foolish replica Luke' unleash your power!"

Luke opened his eyes, confused at his Master's words. He widened his eyes as the feeling of that something building up inside him increased at a very fast rate. "Wh- what's going on!? Something's coming out of me..."

Overflowing energy started leaking out when that something became too much for his body to contain. The feeling was so intense that he felt as if his body was on fire. A cry of pain came out of his throat, which was starting to get drier due to the heat, as he tried in futile to withdraw his arms. Black spots appeared in his vision and they kept on increasing until all he could see was darkness. Then suddenly he saw the face of Van.

"_Luke, listen to my voice. Now, relax, just like that. When I order you to release your power, you will open every fon slot in your body and unleash a hyperresonance. That same power you're using right now. The trigger phase will be... 'Foolish replica Luke.'"_

He let out a final cry when he felt the remaining large amount of energy rushed out of his body in one go. He heard the sound of something breaking and fell limply to the ground.

"You've finally proven useful, replica."

Luke's eyelids fluttered open tiredly at the voice. The first thing he saw was the unconscious form of Ion on the ground near the wall. He wondered if the frail boy was blown away due to the energy he released and was knocked out when he collided with the wall behind him. Luke slowly drifted his gaze upwards towards the owner of the voice. His Master finally came into his line of sight. He saw him looking at something before him and knew he was looking at the fon machine.

"Master... ?" Luke croaked out. His throat was still dry due to the heat and it hurt very much just to utter that single word out. However, he couldn't say anything else as darkness engulfed him again.

"Damn! We didn't make it!" Van looked up the spiraling pathway and saw the wayward student he hadn't seen for the past seven years with his sword original Luke fon Fabre, or Asch, the alias he had been using since he went into hiding.

"Ah Asch. So Cantabile was right that you would show up if I do something drastic." He put two fingers into his mouth and whistled. Three griffins, Arietta's friends, flew in from the entrance at the signal. One of them grabbed Asch's sword arm rendering him unable to swing his sword and flew into the air. The second one grabbed onto the unconscious Ion.

"Let me go!" He ignored the boy's indignant cry as he climbed onto the back of the last griffin. He was about to signal to the other three beasts to start leaving but paused when he saw his sister barging into the Sephiroth with the rest of her group. He frowned and cursed inwardly, he had specifically ordered his soldiers to take Tear away at all cost, but it seemed they couldn't even complete such a simple task.

"Luke/Ion!" Guy and Anise cried out simultaneously. Van saw the blond swordsman dashed towards his unconscious young master and his frown deepened for just a moment before disappearing as he gazed into his sister's eyes that was full of hate, sadness and disbelief.

"Van! I knew it! You've betrayed me! You said you were going to preserve the Outer Lands! What about the people of Akuzeriuth? The Oracle soldiers in the Tartarus? They'll all be killed." Tear's shout was so full of desperation as if she was about to break down any moment.

He bit his lips and stopped himself from saying the comforting words he wanted to say to his beloved sister. "Mystearica, some day you'll come to understand the folly and ugliness of this world. I want you to live... at least long enough for me to see you come to your senses. You have the fonic hymns. Use them." He gave the signal and the griffins started flying away with their captive.

"Ion!" Anise cried out. She dashed after the griffins, but she wasn't fast enough and her path was blocked by the debris falling down from the roof that blocked the entrance of the Sephiroth.

"The tunnels are collapsing!" Jade shouted.

Tear raised her staff before her. "Everyone, come close! Hurry!" She saw out of the corner of her eye Guy, with an unconscious Luke, getting closer. She closed her eyes and started singing the second fonic hymn. Force Field. An arte that would be able to prevent them from being crushed by the collapsing city.

* * *

"_Wh- what's going on!?" _Lloyd shouted as he struggled to keep his balance on the violently shaking ground. Even if he could hold his balance and keep walking, large cracks were forming here and there on the ground making it impossible for him to get to Akzeriuth. It was frustrating, especially since the city's only less than two hundred meters away from his current position.

"_Lloyd!"_ Lloyd looked up and saw the same translucent pale blue wings fluttering lightly behind his father's back as the man glided over the shifting landscape and flew straight at him.

He inwardly cursed his own condition that rendered him unable to call out his own wings before extending an arm upwards to catch Kratos' hand. Wind rushed through his hair as he felt them soaring upwards. Even as Kratos ascended, Lloyd was looking down at the miasma covered city before them. He noticed that the earthquake seemed to have been originated from the center of the city. Cracks large enough for large buildings to fall through were all over the violently shaking city.

Lloyd gasped as he realized that the city was on the brink of destruction._"Wh- what's going on?"_

Kratos ignored his son's question as he took in the sinking city with hardened eyes. "Gnome, can you halt the sinking by strengthening the bond between Akzeriuth and the land surrounding it?"

Lloyd frowned, he didn't know what his father had said but it was apparent that he wasn't addressing him. Then Lloyd remembered that he had never told Kratos about his inability to understand Fonics and he had simply assumed that his father knew because he had been conversing with him in the language of their own world. He opened his mouth to remind Kratos to speak in their own language-

"The best I can do is slow down the sinking of the outskirts of the city, and only for several hours at most. The area affected is too large and my power couldn't cover the whole city."

- and closed his mouth at the voice that just joined their conversation. The voice seemed to have come from above him. Lloyd looked up and saw a creature of some kind lying on a sphere floating next to Kratos. His mouth opened again, but there was no voice coming out as he stared dumbstruck at the newcomer.

"It's better than nothing." Kratos grunted. "Go and slow down the sinking, Gnome, try to reach as much area as possible."

Gnome nodded. "I will let you know when I can't hold onto it anymore." He disappeared.

Lloyd blinked at the strange being's sudden departure. _"Dad, what's going on and who's that?" _He asked as he felt them accelerating towards Akzeriuth.

However, he was ignored again when he heard the auburn haired angel speaking in Fonics again. "Rem, is it possible for you to maintain a physical body for several hours and assist with the rescue?"

"Yes." Lloyd gaped at the owner of the new voice again. He was prepared for whoever was going to come up when he dad started talking in Fonics again, but he hadn't expected the newcomer to be a beautiful angel with six large pure white feathery wings sprouting from her back. He had thought Mithos' wings looked grand, but this was easily the most stunning angel he had ever seen.

There was a slight pause as Kratos stared at Rem. Then he sighed and muttered something about 'causing an uproar' under his breath. "Found the nearest location that isn't going to sink anytime soon and can hold a large amount of people. Once you've found it, let us know where it is and start to carry people over there. Set a barrier over it so no one can run away, we don't need them running off in panic and getting themselves killed. If someone ask or is scared because of your appearance, briefly explain to them you are the Aggregate Sentience of Light and are here to save them."

"Understood." Rem replied and disappeared.

Lloyd looked back down at the city. He could make out the states the city and its residents were in clearer now that they were nearer. Anguish cries filled the air and he saw people desperately trying to escape the city only to be stopped by either something falling onto them or random cracks opening up under their feet. It wasn't the first time he saw people dying in a large scale disaster, but his heart still cried out for the dying people.

He didn't understand what Kratos told those two beings, but he knew it was about rescuing the people in Akzeriuth. Then he blinked in surprise when he noticed that the shaking had become less vigorous. _Is it the doing of those two?_

"_This city is sinking." _Lloyd raised his head and looked at Kratos. _"The two you saw just now, Gnome and Rem, are equivalent to the Summon Spirit of Earth and Light of this planet. Gnome is using his power to slow down the sinking as we speak. However, he couldn't hold for long and-"_

Lloyd followed his father's line of sight when he noticed the man staring at something and that was the reason he paused mid sentence. He saw two griffins soaring into the sky from the city center and could make out two people on them. One was riding on one of the aerial monster and the other unconscious and was being held in the other griffin's claw.

"Ion!?" He gasped when he realized that the limp figure was in fact Ion. _"He's captured! Dad, we-"_

"_Lloyd, set your priorities straight, right now we need to save the people here. They won't kill Ion. They still need him for their plan." _Kratos said with a sharp tone.

Lloyd mentally shook his head to clear his mind. Kratos was right, saving the people in Akzeriuth took priority. Then he noticed something his father said. _"Plan?"_

"_Later. Rem is now finding a safe location and once she comes back, we'll start carrying people over there." _

"_But I can't fly now." _Lloyd bit his lips and pushed down the frustration he was feeling for being useless at such a critical moment.

"_When was the last time you used a Rheaird?" _

Lloyd's eyes lit up at the question. His feet touched the slightly shaking ground as they started to land and he whirled around to look at his father who had already retracted his wings. _"You have a Rheaird now!?"_

"_More than one." _Kratos said and fished out a wing pack from his pocket. Moments later, two Rheairds were in front of them. _"They are fully charged and can hold for several hours. Be careful when operating them, they were upgraded by a friend of mine several years ago and the top speed was doubled. I don't want you crashing because you can't handle the sudden speed change, and there's also a possibility that the people we rescue can't withstand such high speed."_

Lloyd nodded. Before he could get onto the Rheaird, Rem reappeared. "I have set up a barrier over a field twenty kilometers north of our current position. The barrier is silvery and translucent, you will be able to tell where it is once you get near." The Aggregate Sentience of Light disappeared again once she finished her report to start the rescue.

"_Lloyd."_ He shifted his attention back to his dad. _"Rem has secured a place north of here for us to drop the people off. It's quite far away and takes about five minutes to get there even if we go at the Rheaird's new top speed."_

Lloyd frowned at the information. He still couldn't do any complex calculation, but he understood that meant they couldn't save too many people.

"_Although the maximum load of the upgraded Rheaird is five people, there's not enough room for that many people. I don't mean to... discriminate, but you may want to rescue those that... has a smaller figure so you can save more people. There are also a lot of people that are already suffering from inhaling too much miasma and... it would be best if we rescue those that aren't going to die soon from the miasma."_

Lloyd could only nod numbly as Kratos briefed him on the 'most efficient' way to carry out the rescue. It was cruel that they couldn't save everyone and even crueler that they had to 'selectively' save the people here. And he knew Kratos was feeling the same way from the slight tremble in his voice and the clenched fists by his sides. But there wasn't anything they could do.

Kratos noticed his son's distress and closed the distance between them. He placed a hand on Lloyd's head despite the man having grown another few inches during the time they were apart and was less than half a head shorter than him now. _"Rem can cover a large distance in the blink of an eye. She would be able to save a lot of those we couldn't due to our limitation. Just fly to the north to drop off the people you rescue in a silver translucent barrier. I'm sure you'll see a crowd already gathering there."_

Lloyd looked up and saw the gentle expression that had always been reserved for him alone before and after he learned of his and Kratos' relation and before his father left with Derris Kharlan. The expression was gone a split second later as Kratos withdrew his hand and mounted one of the Rheairds.

"_Be careful. Although Gnome is using his power to slow down the sinking and lessen the intensity of the earthquake, it's still dangerous in the city. You are still recovering from mana exhaustion and we just finished a tiring fight. I don't want you to get hurt because you overestimated your strength."_

Lloyd grinned lightly at the all too familiar reprimanding tone of his father. _"I know. Overconfidence breeds carelessness, right?" _He repeated one of the sentences Kratos used to throw his way when he became too cocky in the past as he got onto the other Rheaird.

A small smile tugged on Kratos' lips. _"Don't die, Lloyd."_ The engines of the Rheairds roared to life and they took off at the same time.

* * *

**~ Skit: Age difference ~**

Lloyd: (stared at Kratos out of the corner of his eye)

Kratos: …

Lloyd: (continued staring)

Kratos: Lloyd, is there a problem?

Lloyd: ! Ah... well... it's just... you look old. N- no, I mean... older, that's it! Older!

Kratos: My aging resumed a while ago. My physical body is about forty now.

Lloyd: Your aging... resumed? Is it something similar to what Yuan did to my Angelus Sphere and the others' Cruxis Crystals? And how did you know about it?

Kratos: Yuan? I'm not sure what he did, but I doubt my circumstance is similar to yours. I will explain later.

Lloyd: Okay... but you don't look forty...

Kratos: You know I never look my age anyway.

Lloyd: ! Was that... did you just make a joke!?

Kratos: Who knows?

Lloyd: !

Kratos: (raised an eyebrow)

Lloyd: Nothing! … wait, if you look forty, or thirty something, maybe I can call you dad in front of the others without them asking any question?

Kratos: I think we can pass you off as someone in their early twenties and me as someone that looks several years younger than their actual age.

Lloyd: (snickered) You mean four thousand years younger than their actual age, right?

Kratos: I'm just two thousand if we go by the dating system here. And if I do look my age, people will think it weirder if you address me as your father.

Lloyd: !

Kratos: (sigh) What is it, Lloyd? You have been doing that quite often.

Lloyd: … well... you feel different...

Kratos: (raised an eyebrow)

Lloyd: I mean, you are less stiff and... you just joked... more than once in the last minute...

Kratos: (smile) I suppose finally being able to live freely and do what I have always wanted to have helped me regain what I have lost in the past four thousand years.

Lloyd: ! Who are you and what have you done to my dad!?

Kratos: (death glare)

Lloyd: Eh.. hehe... I was just... joking?

Kratos: Good. Because I was too.

Lloyd: Wh- what!?

* * *

**Author's Note**:

Hmm... these few chapters were heavily following the game script, but there wasn't any other way for me to do it... I did say I would be skipping here and there to not bore you, but this was one of the most significant event in the game and it wouldn't do for me to just skip over it too. And I suppose quite a number of the following chapters would also have scenes that look very similar to the original...

I know Ion wasn't captured by Van in Akzeriuth, but Van had originally wanted to take Ion. He wasn't able to only because he hadn't expected Asch to suddenly show up and Asch was more valuable to his plan than Ion. Here, Van had been expecting Asch to show up, so instead of two, he prepared three griffins.

I have already integrated the FOF system of TOA in this fic, now I'm going to add the unison attack system of TOS in this fic, too. Because it would be a waste, to me at least, if there's no father-son unison attack after I went through all the trouble (not really) to have Lloyd make an appearance here. But the TOA crew, except Asch and Dist, wouldn't be able to use it. Kratos' the one who taught the others how to do it so naturally only those trained with him would know how to perform such attacks, at least for the time being.

I was a bit unsure about the skit when I finished writing it, but my sister thought it's ok and also a bit hilarious so I decided to post it as it was. Hope you think it's ok too.

Artes used in this chapter:

Lloyd – **Heavy Tiger Blade **虎牙烈斬_Kogaretsuzan_

Asch – **Fierce Demon Fist** 剛・魔神拳 _Gou Majinken –_ An attack exclusive to Asch. He had already learned **Demon Fist** 魔神拳 _Majinken _from Van and took it to the next level by imitating Kratos' **Fierce Demon Fang** 剛・魔神剣 _Gou Majinken._

Lloyd – **Omega Tempest **真空裂斬_Shinkuuretsuzan_

Lloyd (Thrust attack) + Kratos (Thrust attack) – **Cross Thrust** 衝破十文字 _Shouha Juumonji_

Kratos – **Radiant Streak **陽塵虛閃 _Youjinkosen – _A stream of light coming out of the body of the blade, attack duration is 3s. I want to say it's similar to Gaius' **Incineration Wave **覇道滅封_Hadoumeppuu _in TOX2 where a stream of fire came out of the body of the blade, but I don't think most of you will know what I'm talking about... and no, it's not like Asbel's **Incineration Wave **in TOG. Asbel's **Incineration Wave** and its follow up will be the fire FOF change of **Radiant Streak** if I ever get the chance to write Kratos using it.

Kratos – **Shining Bind** – All I want to say about his mystic arte is that it's no longer a light-based attack due to the now fonon based Cruxis Crystal. There's no elemental attribute to it anymore, or maybe you could say it's a sound-based attack now. And that's why it looks a bit different.

About Kratos' elemental affinity, since Seventh Fonon acts a bit different from mana, Kratos' elemental attacks, like **Lightning Blade**, and spells, like **Grave**, would become weaker and weaker as his mana was being converted until he couldn't use them anymore once the conversion was finished. Though he could still use Fire, Light and maybe Darkness elemental attacks in addition to Seventh Fonic Artes. I have detailed in FI ch. 23 why people with Seventh Fonon could use attacks with those three elemental attributes so I am not going to repeat it here.

_Uploaded on 25 Aug 2013._


	12. Shocking Revelation

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_; Character reading; _"Lloyd's language"_; _Character remembering a past event_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 11: Shocking Revelation**

"No matter how far we go, there's nothing in sight... are we really underground?" Guy asked uncertainly as he squinted his eyes at the darkened 'sea' in front of them from the deck of Tartarus, hoping to find something, _anything_, on the vast 'sea'.

Tear's fonic hymn had effectively shielded them from the falling debris and prevented them from being crushed by the collapsing tunnel. It had also become a floating platform and had slowly lowered them to the 'ground', a large piece of rock that was floating above the sea of mud that Tear told them was the liquefied mantle. There was nothing they could do apart from watching the remaining survivors being swallowed up by the sea of mud as they stood on the rock and tried to access the situation.

They didn't have to wait for long when the Tartarus suddenly dropped down from the 'sky'. The warship had miraculously survived the fall and was in an upright position when it crashed into the sea of mud. It was very fortunate when they decided to board the ship that Jade had discovered the emergency buoy was still operational and the Tartarus could stay above the mud.

Natalia had at first suggested to look for other survivors and took them to the Tartarus after they boarded the ship. However, when they saw debris falling down telling them that the town was _still _falling for some bizarre reason, Jade, ever the logical person of the group, said that they needed to get away as soon as possible unless they wanted to be buried alive from the still falling Akzeriuth.

When they got to the bridge of the warship, Tear had informed them of a city, Yulia City, to the west of their current position and they had immediately set off towards that direction. It was nearly an hour since then. Jade had judged that they were far enough away from Akzeriuth and not in any immediate danger and that's why they were now out on the deck of the still moving Tartarus that had been set on auto-pilot.

Tear fixed her gaze upon the 'sky', which was in fact the underside of the land they had been standing on till less than two hour ago, and drawled out the answer to the blond swordsman's question. "In a way. The place you live down here is known as the Outer Lands, the world's outer shell. It's a floating land supported by pillars called Sephiroth Trees that extend from the Qliphoth."

Natalia frowned at the given information, not liking the fact that there were so many new terms she, a princess that had been studying the facts of this world since the age of four, had never heard of. "I don't understand."

Tear turned towards Natalia. "Long ago, the Outer Lands were here in the Qliphoth. Two thousand years ago, the miasma enveloped Auldrant and infected the land. That is when Yulia read the seven part Score, finding a way to escape destruction and bring prosperity. Based on the Score, Yulia proposed a plan to raise the planet's crust using the Sephiroth." After the explanation, she lifted her head again to look at the 'sky' above them.

"And that was the beginning of the Outer Lands, huh..." Guy whispered once he managed to fully took in the hidden truth of the world he was born to, "that's quite a story..."

Tear lowered her head and looked at the group. "Only maestros and above in the Order of Lorelei know. As do those born in the Qliphoth."

"Then, you're from the Qliphoth, Tear?" Anise asked.

Tear nodded.

"Why did this happen? You said Akzeriuth was supported by a pillar, right?" Jade asked.

Before Tear could answer the question, a new voice joined them. "Because this idiot here disintegrated the pillar!"

They shifted their attention to the newcomer and Tear gasped. "Asch! How-" She didn't manage to finish her question and was cut off by the 'idiot' Asch mentioned.

"Wh- what are you talking about?" Luke stuttered out and the group turned from Asch to look at the distraught noble. "I- I don't know anything about it!" He unconsciously started stepping backwards under the others' gazes. "I was just trying to neutralize the miasma! Master Van told me that if I caused a hyperresonance there, the miasma would disappear!" He had been raising his voice and was shouting loudly by the time he said the last few words.

Asch snorted and narrowed his eyes to glare at the other red haired boy. "Still calling that man Master even though he betrayed you?" He scoffed. "You disgust me."

"No!" Luke protested loudly at the mention of his favorite person betraying him. "Ma- Master Van is..."

"My brother deceived you. That fon machine Van told you to use hyperresonance on is the passage ring. Those passage rings are what produced the pillars." Tear said quickly, knowing the damage would be done no matter who explained it to the others, but she knew Luke would be hurt even more if Asch was the one to explain.

"I wish Luke had at least discussed it with us beforehand. Neutralizing the miasma could have waited until the residents were evacuated." Jade adjusted his glasses so that his eyes were blocked by the reflections and no one could tell what's on his mind, not that his poker face wasn't enough to do the job. "Of course, there is little point in saying that now."

Natalia lowered her gaze and stared at the spot before her feet with a sad expression. "Yes... Akzeriuth is gone. Thousands of live lost in an instant."

"A- are you saying it's my fault?" The question snapped the group out of their distress momentarily and they directed their gazes, some full of disbelief, at Luke. "It's not... it's not my fault! Master Van said... that's right, Master Van told me to do it! I had no idea this would happen! No one told me!"

Asch's body shook with rage as he walked up to the still protesting boy. "It's not my fault! It's not my-" The words were cut off as Asch grabbed Luke by his shirt front and dragged him forward. "Of course it's your fault! It's because you didn't even try to think before using your hyperresonance! Such a second-rate cop-"

"Asch!" Tear shouted and stopped Asch from finishing his sentence.

"Tch." Asch pushed Luke back and began to leave.

"What?!" Luke shouted at Asch's retreating back after he regained his balance from the sudden push. "I told you it's not my fault!"

"Colonel?" Tear asked as she noticed the eldest member of the party made a move to follow after Asch.

"I'm returning to the bridge. If I stay here, I'll just be irritated by some ridiculous ranting." Jade said with an icy tone and left behind Asch.

"What's your problem!?" Luke snapped at Jade, who ignored him. "I was just trying to save Akzeriuth!"

"Ever since you lost your memory, you're like a completely different person..." Natalia stared at the ground between her and Luke with an unreadable expression. She then closed her eyes and bit her lower lip tightly. When she opened her eyes, she still wasn't looking at Luke and also started towards the bridge.

Luke's body trembled slightly at the thought of Natalia, someone who was always by his side telling him what to do even when he was yelling at her about how annoying she was, leaving without even glancing at him. "Y- you all couldn't do anything either! Don't just blame me!"

"Yes! We couldn't do anything! But that's because you are too much a fool to tell us anything!" Anise shouted at Luke. She breathed in deeply and her fists were shaking violently by her sides. When she spoke again, her voice was barely above a whisper. "It's because of you that Ion is... and you also killed Lloyd along with all the people in Akzeriuth!" The Fon Master Guardian ran away.

"Llo- no!" Luke gasped at the mention of the final member of their party. "I didn't kill him! I- it's Master Van's fault! He's the one that killed them! Not me!" He suddenly turned towards his ever faithful servant aka best friend. "Right, Guy?"

"Luke..." Guy slowly averted Luke's gaze and started walking, "don't make me think even less of you..." He said with a low voice as he brushed pass his young master to join the others at the bridge.

Luke stumbled and looked at the ground with an empty gaze. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he looked up, a bit hopefully, at the female soldier. "Tear?"

Tear held her gaze with Luke for a while before lowering it. "I was stupid for starting to think you had some good in you..." She whispered and also left the deck.

"W- why? Why are you all blaming me..." It was barely above a whisper, and the way he's whispering it, it was more of a sentence than a question.

Mieu walked up to the distraught boy. "Master... Cheer up." Though his own voice was very small, and if anything, it sounded sad.

"Shut up! What do you know?!" Luke snapped.

"A lot of my people died because of me. So... I understand what you're feeling, Master." Mieu tried reasoning with his master.

"Don't compare me to _you_! Don't compare me to-"

"You are right. You shouldn't compare yourself to a cheagle. You are even worse than them!"

Luke looked up at the voice and saw the last person he had expected. "A- Asch? Y- you came back?"

Asch sneered. "What? Do you seriously think I will willingly spend more time with a reject like you?"

"Re- reject..." Luke's eyes became unfocused as he recalled the last time someone describing him with that exact word. "Legretta also called me that... th- that's when they all started to ignore me..." Focus returned to his eyes and he looked at Asch desperately, wanting to finally get some answer. "Why!? Why are you people calling me that?!"

"That's because you deserve it! You defective repli-"

"Asch!" Asch was, once again, cut off by Tear.

Luke shifted his gaze to Tear and started to feel something akin to hope swelling up in his chest. "Te- Tear? Y- you also came back?" Then he finally noticed that she wasn't alone. In her arms was the sleeping figure of a kid that looked to be around five. "Who's that kid?"

"She's the only survivor Asch found in the wreckage of Akzeriuth." Tear explained.

"Look at her!" Asch pointed at the little girl whilst still looking at Luke and hissed, not wanting to raise his voice too much and wake the girl. "She has lost her family and friends all because of you!"

"No! I told you it's not my-"

"The heck it's not your fault! You might not be at fault for robbing me of my family, my home, everything." This time, Tear also tried to stop Asch by calling his name, but he had ignored her. "But don't you even deny it's because of you that this girl has lost everything!"

"Wh- what do you mean I rob you of your family and home?" Luke stared at Asch with a stunned expression.

Asch rolled his eyes. "Are all replica brains this defective?"

"'Replica'?" Luke repeated the word and recalled hearing his master saying the same word. "Master Van used the word replica, too..."

Asch snorted. "You _still _haven't figured it out?! Is this someone's idea of a joke!"

"Wh- what?" Luke tried to bring up an offended look, but he was starting to feel tired of all this and just wanted to finally get some answers. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'll tell you, Luke." Asch narrowed his eyes as he spat out the name 'Luke'. He again ignored Tear's plea to stop and continued. "Why do you think you and I have the same face?"

"H- how should I know?" Luke stuttered, not expecting the sudden and out of the blue question.

"I am a noble who was born in Baticul. Seven years ago, I was kidnapped by a villain named Van."

Luke's eyes widened in disbelief as he took in the words and started to connect the dots. "You can't mean..."

"That's right!" Asch snarled. "You're a second-rate copy of me! A mere replica!"

Luke stumbled back a step as if physically hit before digging his heels in and refused to believe what the other boy said. "You're lying! It's not true! It's not true!" He shook his head vigorously and suddenly unsheathed his sword, pointing it towards his source of misery with shaking hands.

However, Asch made no move to unsheathe his own sword, choosing instead to stare at the nearly broken boy, disdain apparent in his eyes. "You want to fight, replica? In front of this girl?" He asked icily.

"I- I... no!" Luke's grip on the sword loosened letting the sword drop to the ground with a loud clang. "... I'm not... you are lying... you are just lying... !" He clutched his head with both hands and suddenly lowered his head as memories of the conversation they had had after Jade had memorized the data on the fon disc they acquired from Sync came up in his mind.

"_Isofons are two entities that have the exact same fonon frequency. Of course, they don't exist unless artificially created."_

"_That 'fomicry' technology they worked on a long time ago can make isofons, right?"_

"_No, replicas created through fomicry are mere imitations. A replica may look identical, but its fonon frequency is different. One can't produce isofons that way."_

He had deemed that information unimportant before and had decided not to dwell on it anymore, but now, no matter what he did, Jade's voice when he said the words 'replicas created through fomicry are mere imitation' rang loud and clear in his mind. "No..." He shook his head, finally managed to push back that particular memory, only for another one, one that was worse, to come up.

"_Foolish replica Luke."_

"_You have finally proven useful, replica."_

"No!" He gasped one last time before his eyes rolling up as he finally fainted under all the pressure and collapsed onto the floor.

"Master!" Mieu shouted and closed the distance between him and the still form of his master.

Asch snorted. "So he fainted from mental shock? Pathetic."

"Asch! Why do you have to provoke him?" Tear half shouted at Asch, not wanting to raise her voice too much. It was amazing that the girl she was holding managed to sleep through the whole confrontation between the two red heads, but it was understandable when one took into account how exhausted the girl must be. However, that still didn't mean Tear would willingly raise her voice to test her own theory that the girl could sleep through anything in her current state.

"Someone has to tell him sooner or later." Asch started walking towards the unconscious Luke. He paused when he got too close and noticed the cheagle dutifully standing between him and his replica. "Out of the way."

"I won't let you hurt my Master!"

"I am not interested in killing your so called 'Master', that would just dirty my blade." Asch ignored the cheagle who looked ready to breath fire if he got one more step closer and walked pass Luke to get to the door that connected the deck and the cabin. "Look after them. I'll go clean out two cabins for them to rest in."

* * *

"Thank you so much for saving me and my children!" The woman whose wounds were currently being treated by Lloyd exclaimed. There were two children lying on the ground beside her, either sleeping or had fallen unconscious, but there weren't any outward injury and their breathing were stable.

Lloyd briefly took in the woman's grateful expression before returning it with a smile. He nodded and returned his attention to wrapping the sprained ankle before him. It was nearly three hours since Gnome's power was exhausted and all of Akzeriuth had collapsed. He knew he couldn't save all the people in the city given the time limit, and he was glad that Rem had indeed saved a lot, about ten times the amount of people he _and_ Kratos had saved, but he still felt guilty for not being able to save more.

Once they took the last batch of people they could save to within the barrier Rem had set up, Kratos had asked Rem to help him calm down the panicking crowd. The appearance of Rem helped calming down the crowd greatly. It seemed that when Rem was saving people, none had it in them to ask what or who Rem was, having assumed that she was an angel who had come down from heaven to save them or whatever wild guesses they had made. It didn't matter that the concept of heaven was not among the teaching of the Order of Lorelei and that they had only ever heard of beings called angels from some fairy tales they read when they were just children.

It had been agreed between them that the Aggregate Sentience would be the ones to step up and take the spotlight. The official story would be that Gnome had sensed an irregular vibration near Akzeriuth signalling ground instability the moment the collapse started and only had the time to notify Rem and several humans that the Aggregate Sentience deemed trustworthy before coming here to help rescuing people from the falling city.

Although Kratos wanted to remain anonymous, there's nothing he could do when murmurings of 'the Phantom Warrior serving the Aggregate Sentience' or 'the Phantom Warrior being friends with the Aggregate Sentience' were heard here and there, especially since he hadn't worn any cloak this time, having forgone it when he first started battling the Oracle Knights. It hadn't taken long after that to restore order to the crowd and start organizing for those who were capable to help treat the injured.

Of course, Lloyd hadn't understood any of the things being said if not for Kratos being the patient translator he was. They had also exchanged some basic information like Lloyd being unable to communicate with others but could read their writings and the language used here being a rip off of the Angelic language, or the other way round, and that's why Kratos was able to perfect the language soon after he came here. After that, when people finally started to settle down, Kratos and Lloyd, the two Aggregate Sentience having disappeared soon after their 'speech', had gone about distributing the medical equipment Kratos had prepared beforehand.

Lloyd carefully tied a not-too-tight and not-too-loose knot with the ends of the bandage Kratos had given him earlier. He took one last look at the wrapped ankle and nodded to himself, satisfied at his own work. Though he wasn't a healer, he had learned some basic first aid from Raine a long time ago. The wrapping was nowhere near perfect, but it was enough to help the ankle heal quickly and correctly. Lloyd flashed another smile towards the woman before standing up and looking for another unattended injured person.

After a cursory sweep, Lloyd noticed that most of the people were either occupied with treating the others or resting and none required his help at the moment. He glanced around searching for his father and saw him talking to a man wearing a yellow helmet. If he remembered correctly, this man was the same one that had come up to him when he first entered Akzeriuth with Luke's group. His chest tightened momentarily at the thought of his new-found friends.

He hadn't had the time to ask Kratos more about the cause of the city's destruction yet, but from what he gathered it had something to do with Luke and the master he was always talking about. Coupled with the fact that their group had been getting deeper and deeper into the mines when the collapse started, the chance of them still alive were slim to none.

He shook his head to rid himself of the depressing thought and ran up to where the man, Pyrope if he had interpreted correctly from the small amount of words he managed to figure out, had just finished conversing with his dad.

"Hey, I remember you, aren't you the one in Princess Natalia's group that carried the entrance guard to the inn?" Pyrope pointed at Lloyd when he stopped before them.

Lloyd blinked at the question, though he could make out words here and there, it still took time for him to piece together a complete question from the broken words he got. However, he was saved from answering the question he still wasn't able to comprehend when Kratos answered for him. "He's my son, Lloyd. And as you can see, he has a bit of problem in the hearing and speaking compartment due to some injury he sustained sometime ago."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"That's fine, it's only temporary. Lloyd was travelling with Princess Natalia's group while I was preoccupied with my other mercenary jobs." Kratos explained.

Pyrope nodded. "Right. But if Lloyd here is with Princess Natalia, does that mean they are also safe?"

"Yes. I have sent someone over to rescue them. However, they are not with us now. Lloyd was only here because Rem had taken him to me to help with the rescue."

The pseudo mayor's eyes widened in surprise. "Wh- but how? If they are still within the mine when it collapsed, then..."

"The one I sent to them contacted me with a newly developed long distance communication device and informed me that they had found another way out."

"Another way out? Where? Does that mean there are other survivors?" The man's eyes lit up at the thought of more people getting out of the disaster alive.

"I don't know that yet. The connection was cut before I could ask more. But I know at least Princess Natalia's group were safe." After some more information exchange, Pyrope had left them and Kratos quickly translated the conversation between them so Lloyd wouldn't be left in the dark.

"_So Luke and the others are okay?!"_ Lloyd exclaimed, glad that the group was safe, he would have felt even more guilty about leaving them behind in the tunnel if they had died.

"_Yes. I don't know what exactly happened, but from what Asch said, I assume Tear had taken Van's advice and had used the second fonic hymn."_

Lloyd furrowed his brows at the familiar name. _"Van? Isn't that Luke's master?"_

Kratos nodded. _"He's also Tear's brother. He's the one we saw riding on a griffin at the start of the collapse."_

"_What?! He's the one that captured Ion?!"_ Lloyd shouted, finding it difficult to wrap his head around the idea of someone Luke seemed to look up to so much who was also the brother of the gentle yet determined Tear being Ion's captor. Though the more he thought about it, it's not that hard to stomach, considering something similar had also happened to him in the past. However, nothing would have prepared him for Kratos' next words.

"_And the one behind the destruction of Akzeriuth."_

* * *

Asch threw the last corpse he found in the cabin away and stared at it with an unreadable expression as it sank into sea of mud. There was a strange gleam in his eyes for just a moment before it disappeared. In a little over an hour, he had cleared away all the corpses in the cabin, bridge and on the deck. He believed he had killed more before Akzeriuth collapsed when he was fighting the Oracle Knights alongside Kratos to save Tear, but he still felt unease dealing with so many corpses and watching them swallowed by the liquefied mantle.

"Luke!" He heard a familiar voice called the name that wasn't his anymore, but he knew she was indeed calling out for him and turned around to see Natalia.

"... uh... I mean, Asch." The princess corrected when she noticed that the boy before her was not going to say anything. "...is it true? That you are..." She trailed off, not knowing how to phrase her question.

Asch noticed the fidgety state Natalia was in and decided to lead the conversation."Why aren't you in the bridge? How much did you hear?"

"I..." Natalia swallowed and looked up to held her gaze with her childhood friend. "We were in the bridge... and the loud speaker was on... we only noticed it when you started shouting. We didn't hear anything when neither of you were shouting... but Jade..." She lowered her gaze.

"He filled you in." Asch finished the sentence for the other. "I wouldn't have expected less from the Necromancer." He stated.

Natalia looked back up again. "So you are really... why? Why didn't you come back? Where have you been?"

"I was travelling with Kratos."

"Kratos?" Natalia blinked at the name before gasping loudly and placed a hand before her mouth. "You mean he's the one that... ?"

Asch rolled his eyes. "Just what did Jade tell you?"

She slowly lowered her hands when she sensed the unspoken words telling her that it wasn't what she thought it was. "He said that whoever re- replicated you is likely the same one that prevented you from going home."

"No. He guessed wrong. Van's the one that replicated me." Natalia gasped again at the mention of Van being the true culprit, though she guessed it wasn't that hard to stomach after everything they had been through. "Kratos helped me after I escaped from Van. In fact, he told me to go back home even though the replica was already there."

"Then why!? Why didn't you come back? Do you have any idea how worr-"

"Are you seriously going to say that you are worried about _me_ when _he_ was crying in front of you demanding attention?!"

Natalia stumbled backwards a step and bit her lower lip to stop it from trembling. "Luke, I-"

"Don't call me that name!" Asch snapped. "It belongs to _him _since seven years ago!"

"L- Asch... I..."

Asch held up a hand and stopped Natalia from saying more. "No... don't say you are sorry, you haven't done anything wrong." He shook his head and began to close the distance between them. "I shouldn't have lashed out at you. You didn't know any better. And I was the one that decided to throw away the past." He didn't pause when he got too close to Natalia, instead, he maintained his pace and walked past Natalia.

He continued walking forward several more steps and stopped when he noticed the other hadn't moved at all. He turned around and saw the distressed princess looking at the ground with lowered head. "What are you doing standing there, we need all the hands we can spare to operate the Tartarus. Do you want to stay behind just because you are too caught up with grief?"

Natalia looked up at the light, chiding tone. Quickly averting his gaze from the princess once he deemed her not feeling guilty and down anymore, a small smile graced Asch's lips as he started towards the bridge, knowing his childhood friend would eventually get over it, and maybe it's finally time that they picked up from where they left off.

* * *

**~ Skit: Side effect of recovery items ~**

Kratos: Lloyd, how much gels do you have?

Lloyd: Not much. Why?

Kratos: We are going to treat the injured. You will need to use gels unless you know how to cast healing spells.

Lloyd: ... then I don't have enough...

Kratos: I thought I have taught you to always be well prepared.

Lloyd: (embarrassed) It can't be helped, I can't restock my supplies.

Kratos: (handed Lloyd a wing pack) I will give you some local currencies later. This will do now.

Lloyd: (stared at the assortment of gels in the wing pack) Okay, but which is which?

Kratos: What do you mean?

Lloyd: Which of these are for me and which are for others?

Kratos: (raised an eyebrow) I am afraid I don't understand your question.

Lloyd: You mean you can tell which to eat and which not?!

Kratos: Lloyd, what are you talking about? They are recovery items. All of them are edible.

Lloyd: B- but how is that possible!? I mean, the people here are using some kind of energies that are not mana, so I shouldn't eat their orange or pineapple gels to recover my mana, right? Surely there's got to be some kind of side effects if I accidentally take them... it's bad enough that they look the same and I can't tell them apart from those I brought from Aselia...

Kratos: (stared at Lloyd)

Lloyd: W- what? Last time I accidentally ate some that Guy gave me and there's this weird feeling... surely that's not healthy, right?

Kratos: (shook his head) I should have known you wouldn't have thought of it unless something happened before.

Lloyd: (embarrassed and a bit angry) Are you making fun of me?!

Kratos: No. It's a bit difficult to explain now, but... wait, you still have recovery items you brought from Aselia?

Lloyd: Yes.

Kratos: Give them to me.

Lloyd: Huh?

Kratos: The people here shouldn't take our recovery items. It's... harmful to them.

Lloyd: (wary) Just how harmful?

Kratos: If one takes too much... think of when one forcefully removes an Exsphere without a Key Crest.

Lloyd: What?! Wh- what about me?! I have already eaten two- no, wait, was it three? Or four? Or-

Kratos: Calm down, Lloyd. The reverse doesn't hold true. There are indeed some side effects your need to be aware of, but it won't do any damage to you body. Again, we'll talk about it later.

Lloyd: If you say so... (paled) wait, I- I have given some of my orange gels to Tear when she ran out of mana- I mean, fonons. Wh- what should I do?! I have killed her!

Kratos: (sighed) Calm down, Lloyd. She would be fine. Some people on this planet are immune to that side effect.

Lloyd: B- but how do you know that she's immune? You have only seen her once!

Kratos: No. I have met her before. I know she's a Seventh Fonist and is thus immune.

Lloyd: Seventh Fonist?

Kratos: Don't tell me you haven't even learned what that is. You have been here for more than a month already. What have I told you about information gathering whenever you get to a new place?

Lloyd: (embarrassed) I can't communicate with them...

Kratos: Yet you told me yourself just a while ago you can read their writings.

Lloyd: Um... well... you see...

Kratos: I'm waiting.

Lloyd: I- it's difficult to just sit in the library to read and do nothing else!

Kratos: (death glare)

Lloyd: … I- I have at least learned the name of some of the towns! An- and I know that their kind of energy is called fonons!

Kratos: (face palmed) Sometimes I just don't know whether to be glad or annoyed that you are so much like Anna.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**ShiroAkari **- Glad you like the skit ^^

**Windsbane & Lord-Krun **- I get it when you said how everyone shouldn't just blame Luke, and I agree with that. But I still didn't like Luke too much during that time, it's more because of his denying he's done anything wrong that makes people mad at him. And his being a jerk discouraged people from wanting to tell him more about what's actually going on... at least that's my opinion.

It's been a busy month and I believe it's going to get more and more busy... I know it's sad, but at this moment, I am not sure if I could keep updating once a week like before. I have written the synopsis of the whole thing, but it still takes a long time for me to write the actual scene out. Not to mention that sometimes I would change my original plan whenever something I think is better comes up in my mind. I promise I will never drop this story, but please bear with my updating at a mush slower pace from now on.

_Uploaded on 12 Sep 2013._


	13. New Reality

Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

_- Character thinking_; _"Lloyd's language"__  
_

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss

* * *

**Chapter 12: New Reality**

_Wake up!_

Luke slowly pried open his eyes and saw... _Wh- what's happening?! Why am I seeing another me sleeping in the bed?!_

_Calm down. You are seeing things through my eyes and the one in front is your body, not your double or anything similar. Lorelei knows how chaotic it will become if there is yet another idiotic replica of me running around._

Luke tried to move his head around to seek out the source of the voice but found that he couldn't control the movement of his head. _What the heck is happening?!_

Just then, Luke felt his body, or the body he was in, if the voice telling him of him being in another body was true, shifted. Moments later he found himself staring at the mirror, or more precisely, the body he's inhabiting through the mirror.

_Asch?! I am in your mind?_

_You and I are perfect isofons. You're a perfect replica, right down to your fonon frequency._ Luke noticed how Asch's mouth didn't move and know it's true that he's within the other boy's mind.

_I- I'm no replica... _He protested weakly. Really, he himself wasn't sure why he was still denying it after being presented with so much proof...

Asch ignored the other's words and continued his explanation. _A perfect replica and it's original can connect with one another via their fon slots. We adjusted your fon slots at Choral Castle so that they'd be open to me. You've heard my voice several times since then, right?_

_And right now my voice is inside your head... then that means I... _Luke wasn't as stupid as Asch was always portraying him to be and knew before the other's explanation that he was indeed just a replica, he just wanted to keep denying the fact. However, now that Asch had said the whole thing out, there's nothing he could do to keep denying.

_Not just your voice. I can control your whole body. Of course, I doubt a dreck like you could pull that off. _Although he didn't have a physical body, Luke felt his face flush with anger at the demeaning tone.

_Stop making fun of me! I'll do it! Just wai-_

"Asch? Are you in there?" Asch shifted his gaze to the direction the voice came from and just in time saw Tear opening the door to the room. "The others are waiting in the meeting room, go over there to talk to the mayor – to my grandfather – about launching the Tartarus."

Asch nodded and left the room, leaving Tear behind with an unconscious Luke and the ever loyal Mieu who had been standing next to the bed, waiting for his master to wake up.

_What's going on? Where are we? And what was that about launching the Tartarus?_ Luke asked the moment Asch left the house and saw through the other's eyes that they were in some kind of settlement.

_We are in Yulia City, the only place habitable in the Qliphoth. We need to go back to the Outer Land to save Ion, and to do so, we need the Tartarus. _Asch answered.

At the mention of the captured Fon Master, Luke felt something akin to guilt swelling up within his body... err... soul. _But how are we going to take a whole warship back up there? And why's Tear not coming?_

_We, as in the others and I, not you, are going to find a way to do so with the mayor's help. As for Tear, who knows, maybe she feels responsible for your current condition and wants to make sure you are fine, you do know how useless trash tends to need girls to protect them, don't you?_

Luke growled at the insult, but since it was only within Asch's mind and it's only just a voice, it sounded much less intimidating than he originally intended it to be much to his frustration, not that he thought Asch would be intimidated by anything he did anyway.

The rest of the trip was mostly spent in silence with Luke brooding, too busy taking in the new surroundings and reflecting on the things that happened up till now. When Asch stepped into the largest building, which Luke suspected to be the one where the meeting room Tear had told them about was in, his gaze was drawn to the design of the interior of the building.

_Hey! It looks similar to that place! _Luke commented.

_You mean the Sephiroth. _Asch said offhandedly as he walked purposefully towards the second floor.

"Luk- Asch! I am so glad you come back." Both redheads' attentions were drawn to the Kimlascan princess waiting in front of a set of large double doors when she literally called out for the both of them.

_Natalia... _Ignoring the longing in his replica's tone, Asch just nodded towards the brown haired princess. He pushed open the door and together they entered the meeting room.

"Asch! Where were you?! We need to get back to the Outer Lands as soon as possible!" Anise exclaimed once the pair walked into the room. It was clear that instead of sitting on the chairs in the room, like Jade, Guy and the man who Luke supposed to be the mayor of this city were doing, the young Fon Master Guardian had been pacing around, impatiently waiting for Asch's arrival.

"Were you with Luke?" Guy narrowed his eyes at Asch, who stared back with an indifferent gaze. "How's he?"

"Sleeping. I'm sure he'll wake up eventually." Asch answered.

"I see..." The blond swordsman's eyes softened as he continued, "if he thinks by himself for a while, I'm sure he'll realize what he needs to do."

_Guy... _

"Who cares what that idiot's doing now?! We need to hurry back to save Ion!" Anise exclaimed and although Luke felt hurt at the blunt words, he felt a bit glad when he noticed a frown marring Guy's feature at the young girl's outburst.

That tiny feeling of happiness intensified when he saw out of the corner of Asch's eye Natalia also looked to be about to retort, though anything she wanted to say was cut off by Jade's always seemingly cheerful tone. "Now that everyone's here, how about we move on to the part about getting back to the Outer Lands? Mayor Teodoro, if you could start telling us of the plan you told us about before."

Teodoro nodded. "We might be able to raise the Tartarus back to the Outer Lands. We've attached a fonon activator to the Tartarus similar to those used by the passage rings. It should be able to stimulate Akzeriuth's Sephiroth and raise a tree one final time."

Anise tilted her head to one side and looked at Teodoro curiously. "Sephiroth are pillars that support our Outer Lands, right? How are we going to use that to get back up?"

"The Sephiroth are places where the planet's fonons are concentrated and memory particles spout forth. The pillars – Sephiroth Trees – are the result of artificially strengthening those memory particle spouts." Teodoro answered.

Jade nodded. "I see. We are going to temporarily stimulate the Sephiroth and catch the memory particle spout with the Tartarus' sail."

Guy held his chin between his thumb and forefinger and let out a soft humming sound."In other words, we're going to be pushed up by memory particles and ride the Sephiroth Tree back up to the surface." He summarized after a while.

"I hope it works..." Natalia said worriedly.

"Don't worry." Asch assured his childhood friend with a firm voice then turned towards Teodoro. "When can we start the operation?"

"You can head to the Tartarus right now."

Asch nodded. Seeing their pseudo leader's approval, the others got up from their seat and started heading towards the doorway. However, just before Guy pushed open the door, Asch called out again. "Wait."

The others halted and turned around, curious as to what the red head still had to say, though in Anise's case, she was more annoyed than curious. "What is it? We need to hurry!"

"Exactly." Asch replied, indifferent to the young girl's irritated tone. "Even with the Tartarus' fastest speed, it takes another three days for us to get to where Akzeriuth collapsed, then another three to four days from there to Daath."

Anise bit her lips. "Then what should we do? Are you saying that there's another way?"

Instead of answering the question, Asch turned to Jade. "What is the least amount of people required to operate the Tartarus?"

"Four for the bare minimum maneuverability." Jade replied without missing a beat to the sudden and out of the blue question.

Asch nodded. "We have five people, one of us should head to Daath first to gather information on the Fon Master's whereabouts."

Anise's jaw nearly dropped at the suggestion. "You mean you _knew_ there's a much faster way to get to Daath and you didn't tell us beforehand?!"

The outburst was once again ignored as Asch continued coolly. "Ion isn't in any immediate danger as Van needs him for whatever plan he's going to dish out. We _need _the Tartarus for we might have to chase after the God Generals all over the world and that other method I mentioned cannot transport a warship to the Outer Land."

Anise looked about to retort but was interrupted by Guy. "So we are sending Anise ahead?"

"No." Anise scowled at the red head's quick dismissal. "I am going. Although Anise knows her way around Daath better than all of us, I have a contact in Daath and can get information on Ion from him."

Guy raised an eyebrow. "How do we know we can trust you?"

"Guy! How can you say that?!" Natalia snapped. "You're Luke's attendant, and his friend! Asch is the real Luke! And did you forget that Asch also tried to save Ion back in Baticul?"

Asch directed his gaze towards the blond swordsman and narrowed his eyes. "Are you still bitter about me attacking that idiot near St. Binah and making him faint on the Tartarus?"

"You may be the real Luke. But my friend is that idiot." Guy replied without really answering the red head's question.

"Are you serious?" Anise asked with an incredulous tone. "After all he's done?"

"Yes. And... you know what people say about one could become a better person if they learn from their past mistakes, right? I have faith that Luke can get past this and become a better person."

_Thanks, Guy. _If Luke had a physical body, he thought he would have cried at the faith his best friend placed in him.

Anise rolled her eyes at the man's words. "As if he's capable of something like that." She then shifted her attention back to Asch. "I want to be the one to go to Daath first... but I guess you have a better chance at learning Ion's whereabouts if you have a contact in Daath... and I trust you more than..."

"Anise?" Natalia asked when she noticed the girl having lowered her head and wasn't going to say anything more.

The girl shook her head. "No, it's nothing." She looked back up and held her gaze with Asch. "Please, save Ion if you find the chance."

* * *

_Eighteen! _Lloyd inwardly congratulated himself at catching yet another animal as he threw it into the net in which he had put the other animals he had hunted in.

They – Kratos and Pyrope – had decided that the best course of action was for the survivors to go to St. Binah, the nearest city. Lloyd wasn't sure of the details, but it seemed the original plan was for Akzeriuth's residents to take refuge in Kaitzur until Malkuth's authorities found a way to get rid of the miasma plaguing the mining town.

The reason they had to have Kaitzur, a Kimlascan territory, take in the refugees of Akzeriuth, a Malkuthian territory, was the same as the reason Malkuth had to ask Kimlasca to carry out the evacuation: the bridge was broken and the miasma was blocking their only other road to Akzeriuth.

However, during the rescue, the location Rem had chosen to place the survivors was north of the broken bridge and Fubras River, where the miasma was seeping out of the ground blocking the road, so now they couldn't find anyway to travel to Kaitzur and have to go to St. Binah instead.

The best approach to this sudden plan change was for Kratos to get to St. Binah as soon as possible to inform the authorities there of the incoming refugees, but then both Kratos and Lloyd were required to stay behind with the other refugees to help with food and transport as most of the others were injured during the collapse, still feeling sick due to inhaling too much miasma or both.

It was fortunate that since Akzeriuth was a mining city, some of the people they rescued were miners and were more fit than normal people even when they were still feeling a bit under the weather. Three such people were sent ahead to St. Binah to deliver the news while the others had remained with the group to help with setting up camp during the night and food hunting during the day.

Although Lloyd had literally saved the world twice before, he never had to lead large groups of refugees. The larger groups of refugees he had faced before were the prisoners from the Desian Ranches and even then he didn't have to worry much – the Palmacosta Army was there for the prisoners from the Palmacosta Human Ranch; Raine was there for the prisoners from the Asgard Human Ranch, which was not far away from Luin anyway; the Renegades was there for the prisoners from the Remote Island Human Ranch; and Iselia Human Ranch was just next to Iselia.

Truth be told, he was amazed at how well his father handled this kind of situation and was secretly glad for the man to be here to take the lead.

Lloyd effortlessly dragged the pile of eighteen animals he caught back to tonight's camp site. He caught sight of another large pile of animals within the site and felt a bit deflated at losing to Kratos at hunting the most animals for the day again, not that his dad was aware of the existence of such a silly competition.

"Wow, Lloyd, that's more than yesterday! Amazing!" One of the refugees exclaimed as he came up to the Lloyd. By now, despite Lloyd's inability to hold longer and more complex conversations, he had managed to befriend most of the people within the group.

He knew of Kratos' cover story for him about how a recently sustained injury had partially impaired his speaking and hearing compartment and was grateful for his father's thoughtfulness in including the part that this was temporary and that he was currently on the road of recovery. This sounded much better than his own cover story of being deaf and mute, not that he had officially told anyone he was deaf and mute due to his inability to speak their language and posing as someone who couldn't talk anyway.

Lloyd flashed his trademark grin at the compliment – he could more or less understand whole sentences now – and thanked the man. He left the pile of animals next to the other larger pile he knew belonged to his father and started looking around. It didn't take long for him to locate Kratos standing on a large rock a distance from the edge of the site, most likely keeping watch.

Making way over to the auburn haired angel, Lloyd purposefully made his steps heavier as he got closer to let the other know of his coming up from behind. He did not need a repeat of having a sword pointing at his neck just because he forgot to announce his presence again.

He noticed how Kratos' shoulders tensed for a bit before relaxing as he closed the distance between them. Within the next few seconds, Lloyd was standing less than a meter next to his father on the large boulder and together they watched the setting sun before them.

It felt a bit awkward just standing next to his father. Of course he's happy to be able to spend time with his biological father, and it felt right just standing next to him in silence, just like they did during the Journey of Regeneration. But then the awkwardness stemmed from that same comfortable silence. It sounded confusing even in his own head, but he couldn't find any better description for it.

There were so many things he wanted to talk to his father about, but at the same time he didn't know what to talk about. It's been so long since they saw each other again and even before then, Kratos was never one for words. Lloyd loved how he and his dad were sometimes able to tell what was going on in the other's mind just from their actions, but he was also a bit frustrated at how silent they could become at times.

If he was still his seventeen year old self, of course he would have no problem carrying on conversations with the stoic man. Correction, now that he thought of it, there might already be times when he had to desperately search for topics just so he could get the other man to _talk _even back then. He had noticed how Kratos was less stiff and generally felt warmer than before, not that Kratos was too cold to him before, but it was precisely that change that made it a bit more difficult for Lloyd to converse with the elder man.

The whole situation felt so frustrating that Lloyd didn't know whether he should cry in relief for having his father back by his side or bang his head against something hard, preferably the boulder they were standing on as that seemed to be the hardest thing in the vicinity, for his stupidity at not knowing what to do or say now that the man he had been desperately wanting to see for so long was standing next to him.

_Stupid Lloyd! What is so difficult? He's your father for crying out! Weren't you always imagining what you would say to him the moment you see him? So why is it so difficult to even say a word now?!_

Maybe it was because of the adrenaline rush of reuniting with his father that he had no problem talking to the other man before, or maybe it was because the conversation topic wasn't anything personal due to recent happenings. However, now that the initial excitement had passed, it had started to become more difficult for Lloyd to start a conversation with his father, and his father having changed and became someone quite different from the one Lloyd thought he knew didn't help.

_Okay, here's what you need to do: start simple. Right, just ask a simple_ _question._ He inhaled deeply as he tried to think of something simple to ask.

"_So you have been investigating Tear's brother with Asch?" _Lloyd asked causally, though the moment the question left his mouth, he wanted to kneel down and bang his head against the rock he's standing on. He wanted to talk about _them_, as in him and Kratos, not the others in this world and certainly not anything about the crisis surrounding them.

"_Yes."_ Lloyd's eye twitched. Although he didn't mean to ask that question, he's more frustrated with the fact that he had asked a question that could be answered with just a single word.

"_How long?" _He was supposed to ask something different, but he wanted to find a way to make his father _talk _first. However, he regretted the question after he heard the other's answer.

"_I have been investigating Van since around the first time I met Asch, when he was five." _Lloyd's eye twitched again, this time not because of the length of the answer, but because of the answer itself.

"_I see. So I suppose Asch is your student and has been travelling with you for a long time then?"_ The twin swordsman scolded himself for not holding his tongue the moment the question left his mouth. He himself could hear the venom when he nearly spat out the name 'Asch'. He heard his father shifted and turned to his left so that they were facing each other and had to suppress the urge to scowl when he noticed the gleam of amusement in the other man's eyes.

"_Are you jealous?"_

He crossed his arms in front of him and saw the gleam of amusement intensified much to his irritation. _"Why would I be?" _He rebutted, the tone almost venomous.

There was a tiny smile gracing the elder man's lips as he lightly shook his head at his son's antics. _"If you say so."_ Kratos turned back to the setting sun and answered the red clad man's previous question. _"Asch became my student when he was ten and we have been travelling together since then."_

Lloyd finally gave in and scowled at his dad's reply. His irritation with the other man rose with each passing second. He had a feeling that Kratos was purposefully doing this to him when he noticed the man acted as if he hadn't seen him scowl even though Lloyd knew full well that his father had always been aware of _everything _that happened around him.

"_Fine!" _He spat out. _"I am jealous! Can we not talk about him and the others anymore?"_

Kratos shrugged before turning back to face his scowling son. _"You are the one that started this topic."_

Lloyd let out a defeated sign and looked warily at his father, his supposedly stoic father. _"Since when did you become like this?"_ He knew his father had changed. He was glad his father had changed. But why? Why couldn't _he _be the one that brought out this change in the other man? He turned away from Kratos and closed his eyes tightly to chase away the feeling that came with that thought. His breath hitched when he felt warmth coming from the familiar large hand on top of his head.

"_I am sorry for not being there. Lloyd."_

Tears welled up in his eyes at the eight simple words and with a sudden turn, Lloyd was sobbing silently into his father's chest. Kratos slowly raised his other arm and placed his palm on Lloyd's back while the other hand slid down from the top to the back of his head so that he's now cradling his son's head.

The two remained in the same position for several long minutes and when the sobbing finally ceased, the sun had already fully set and the only sources of light illuminating the vicinity were the moon and the camp fire in the distance. Lloyd lightly pushed at his father's chest to let the other know he's alright now. Kratos retracted his hands and Lloyd slowly stepped back several steps.

"_Feeling better now?" _Kratos asked as Lloyd rubbed his now red eyes with the back of his hand.

"_Yes. Sor-"_

"_Don't. You didn't do anything wrong."_

He had the bizarre feeling that if he continued saying things like 'sorry for crying', it would become a half-hearted argument not unlike the ones he always had with Colette, only the positions were reversed in this case. Thus, he opted to divert the conversation to what he really wanted to ask. _"Did you miss me?" _Yes, he knew it sounded pathetic, but screwed being viewed as some emotional girl, he desperately wanted to hear his dad's answer, especially after the man pulled a stunt like that to rile him up just now.

Kratos' eyes became even softer than before, something Lloyd didn't think was possible and would most likely freak out if it happened before. _"Yes. As per my gloomy self, I always regretted leaving with Derris Kharlan, regretted leaving my only son behind."_

He directed a weak and tired smile towards his father, marvelling at the change the other man had undergone for him to be able to squeeze out a joke even when answering the supposedly serious question. Lloyd's gaze became curious as he thought of something else, thus breaking the tender moment between them. _"Speaking of which, what happened to Derris Kharlan? Where is it now?"_

"_It's anchored to this planet and is orbiting around it as we speak."_

Lloyd blinked, not expecting the answer. Though when he thought about it, he wasn't sure what answer he had been expecting anyway. _"How is that possible?"_

"_I'm not sure you would want to hear the technical details. The summarized version is that a powerful Aggregate Sentience wants my help with something and found a method to lock Derris Kharlan to this planet, similar to how the elves managed to lock Derris Kharlan to Aselia ten thousand years ago." _Kratos explained.

"_A powerful Aggregate Sentience? You mean like Origin?" _Lloyd asked, remembering the Aggregate Sentience, Gnome and Rem, he had met before and recalled his father telling him that they were similar to Summon Spirits. He then furrowed his brows when he saw Kratos nod. _"But why- wait, did you just say they need your help?!"_

This time it was Kratos' turn to furrow his brow, though not as much as his son. He seemed to be pondering on something and only spoke again after nearly ten seconds. _"Lloyd, how much do you know about the Score?"_

"_Score?" _Lloyd frowned, not understanding the out of the blue question and how the term 'score' was related to Derris Kharlan and his father's current predicament. _"As in scoring a mark in a game, or are you talking about music score? What about it?"_

_Oops. _Lloyd mentally berated himself when he heard his father muttering a soft 'this could take a while', having understood that the 'score' was yet again something quite important to this world that he had oh-so conveniently skipped over when reading the books in Chesedonia to gather information of this world.

* * *

It had been nearly two hours since Asch came back to the Outer Lands through Yulia Road and thirty minutes since he left Aramis Spring. He had found a clearing not far from the cave that was perfect for camping and was now waiting for the fish he caught to be cooked in front of the fire he set up a while ago.

_You have been very quiet. What's wrong? _Asch asked curiously as he poked the fire in front of him with a stick.

… _I was just thinking about Guy's words. _Luke replied. He had thought of ignoring the other's question just to spite him for a split second before throwing the rebellious thought away. It was true that Asch had been very rude to him and had indirectly caused his current predicament, but the rudeness was not one-sided and it really wasn't the other's fault that he fainted. Not to mention that Asch hadn't snapped at him even once since he 'woke up' in his body, well, there were still insults, but still...

Asch scoffed. _About becoming a better person?_

Luke growled at the yet again demeaning tone. _Hey! I can do it if I want to!_

Asch ignored the other's outburst and instead grabbed the now fully cooked fist and started eating. Luke huffed at the other's indifference. He then tried and succeeded to send the mental image of him crossing his arms in front of him childishly to his original's mind, which was again ignored.

… _how come you opened the channel to me? _Luke finally asked after having calmed down.

_I wouldn't have if I'd known how stupid you were. _

_W- what?! Why?!_

_I had hoped to use you to spy on and maybe stop Van. _Asch answered mentally as he continued eating the fish.

_You mean... Akzeriuth?_

_That too. I only found out Van's intention for Akzeriuth after you entered the town and had hoped to slow him down through you while Kratos and I hurried to Akzeriuth. But apparently I was a fool to think you could be of any help._

_I... _Luke trailed off, not knowing what to say in reply to the other's berating words for it was true. _Wait, did you just mention Kratos? As in the Phantom Warrior? Lloyd's relative? _He asked curiously. Then he realized that whoever Asch came with had also died because of him. _H- He's also there when Akzeriuth collapsed?_

_If you are thinking that he and Lloyd are dead because of something so pathetic, think again. _

_What do you mean? How could anyone still be alive after that? _Luke tried not to get his hope up that someone, not just them and the little girl that Asch saved, had survived the collapse, as it could only be wishful thinking for all he knew.

_Kratos has a pact with Gnome and was able to use his power to slow down the collapse of Akzeriuth. I suppose he also managed to save quite a number of people before the town collapsed._ Asch explained.

_Really?! _Luke exclaimed, glad to hear that someone did manage to survive the collapse. _But how did you know that?_

_I have my way. _Came the mysterious reply.

_Fine... by the way, what's a pact? And are you talking about the Aggregate Sentience of Earth?_

Asch rolled his eyes at the stupidity of the question. _Do you seriously think anyone would give their child the same name as one of the Aggregate Sentience? _

Luke was about to make a comeback but was cut off when Asch answered his other question. _And a pact is... similar to a contract that... binds the Aggregate Sentience to a person, allowing that person to use the Aggregate Sentience's power._

_You serious?! Then doesn't that mean Kratos is very powerful?! _Even as Luke expressed his bewilderment at the extent of the power of the famous Phantom Warrior, he remembered that the collapse had indeed stopped for quite some time before resuming after they had boarded the Tartarus. _And to think that I- _

_What? _Asch asked when he noticed that Luke wasn't going to finish his sentence.

_Nothing. _Luke was glad he managed to stop himself before finishing the sentence. He had wanted to say 'and to think that I was saved by him before', having recalled the discussion he'd had with the others about the Phantom Warrior and how Natalia told him that _they _had been rescued by the Phantom Warrior before. But then the _he _in that story wasn't _him, _the replica, but Asch, the original.

_Stop worrying over something you can't change or don't have control over. _

Luke snapped out of his thoughts at the words, wondering if he had heard correct. _Asch, did you just...?_

Asch didn't say anything as he put out the fire. Walking over to a nearby tree, he sat down and leaned against it, getting ready to sleep. _It's something someone once told me. _

* * *

Ion slowly opened his eyes as light filtered through the curtain of his room lighting up the originally darkened room. He blinked twice and brought up his hand to use its back to wipe away the sleepiness. Sitting up slowly he gave his room a cursory sweep before letting out yet another defeated sign.

It'd been three days. Three days since he woke up in his own room and who knew how long he had been unconscious for before that. He wanted to get out and found the others to make sure that they were fine. But he couldn't, for the door was locked and he had no means to unlock it. It sounded ridiculous, the Fon Master, the supreme leader of the Order of Lorelei, being held in his own room in the headquarters of his own organisation. But sadly, that's exactly what was happening.

He lowered his head till his eyes made contact with his hands resting on his lap. He had been thinking about his role and purpose since the first time he laid eyes upon this room. Every morning, he kept reminding himself that he's the leader of the Order of Lorelei and was responsible for basically the whole world. However, no matter how many times he told himself that, everything still felt surreal.

And now here he was, being locked up in his own room with no way out and no idea what's going on in the outside world. He didn't even know how Anise and the others were doing at this moment. It felt funny how Van and Mohs had once told him to take the role of the Fon Master and learn to act like one when those same people were trying their best to do everything they could think of to hinder him from carrying out the duties of a Fon Master. Of course he had also thought of the possibility that maybe he was the one side tracking, that maybe he was the one doing the things a Fon Master wasn't supposed to do.

After washing up, Ion strolled into the Fon Master's office, _his _office, that was connected to his bedroom. He sat down heavily on the chair behind the empty desk and leaned back till the back of his head was touching the top of his chair. Closing his eyes he placed his right arm over his eyes.

Everything up till now was so confusing. At first all he had to do was follow Mohs and Van's lead, even now, after all that's happened he still felt the need to follow their lead. He kept telling himself that it wasn't on a whim when he made the decision to help Emperor Peony and Jade and that he was doing what was right. He didn't know what had happened after he collapsed in Akzeriuth, but he had his own speculation.

Ever since he woke up in his own room three days ago, he always wondered if those things only happened because he thought it was the correct thing to do to help mending the almost damaged-beyond-repair relation between the two nations. That at least Akzeriuth wouldn't have been destroyed if he just followed Mohs' lead and let the war breakout, or that those soldiers on the Tartarus would have at least lived longer and maybe died fighting in the war and not being killed by Oracle Knights without even knowing what's going on.

He removed his arm covering his eyes and slowly opened them while letting his arm drop idly by his side. He stood up, turned around and stared at the familiar symbol of the Order of Lorelei embedded on the wall behind the chair. Raising his hand and stretching out his finger, he lightly traced the U-shaped part of the symbol with the fingertip of his forefinger, all the while making sure not to accidentally use any Seventh Fonon, for just the slightest amount of Seventh Fonon would reveal a chest hidden behind the wall directly under where the symbol was.

He had learned about the tiny trap door from reading the previous Fon Master's diary. He remembered feeling repulsed at the idea of invading another person's privacy, but then Mohs had tried, and failed, to squeeze the stupid feeling out of his system because he needed to read the diary of the original Ion to learn to act like him.

The items stored in the chest were letters, numerous letters written by past Fon Masters, most of them advice and guideline for their successors. And of course, that included the one written by Fon Master Ion, his original. Ever since day one of his discovery of the hidden chest and its contents, he had been relying on the past Fon Master's words, that the Score wasn't meant to be followed word by word and that it was their wish to finally be able to break away from it, as if they were his lifeline. He cherished each and every one of those letters, especially his original's, even though that was the saddest and most hateful letter since it was addressed to him.

A soft click that signaled someone unlocking the door to his room snapped Ion out of his thoughts and he directed his gaze to where the sound came from. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply to prepare himself to face whoever Van had sent to take him to the next Sephiroth, making a silent promise to himself to not remove another Daathic seal for Van again no matter what now that he knew why exactly the Dorian Gerenal wanted access to the Sephiroth.

* * *

**~ Skit: The advantage (?) of sharing minds ~**

Asch: Hey idiot.

Luke: (annoyed) What? And can you stop calling me idiot? (smaller voice) Though I guess it's better than trash or defect...

Asch: Replica then. Can you keep watch?

Luke: What?

Asch: (annoyed) Keep watch. As in standing guard while I sleep and alerting me if there's any danger.

Luke: (angry) Of course I know what's keep watch! I am not three years old!

Asch: But you are only seven years old.

Luke: I-

Asch: So can you?

Luke: (huffed) Why would I want to keep watch while you sleep? I also have to sleep. And being a _seven-year-old child_, I believe I need to sleep more than you.

Asch: No you don't.

Luke: Huh?

Asch: You are already unconscious.

Luke: B- but... isn't there the saying that the mind needs to rest too?

Asch: (rolled eyes) Fine. You take the first watch. Then if by any chance you feel tired and want to sleep, wake me up after four hours and I'll take the second watch.

Luke: Fine.

(Asch closed his eyes and began to sleep)

Luke: …

Asch: …

Luke: This isn't going to work.

Asch: What?

Luke: I can't see anything when you close your eyes...

Asch: ...

* * *

**Author's Note:**

First and foremost, many thanks to all the reviewers for the reviews!

**Colette Hyuga** - Glad to hear you like the skit^^ Sometimes it's so hard to think of a funny skit so I am happy to know others also find it funny.

**Windsbane** - Is it a good or bad thing that things are going according to your guess? Hopefully the next few chapters would be able to surprise or at least make some impression on you. I like it when my plot manages to surprise others. I am also happy to hear you say 'thanks for updating' everytime ^^

**splitheart1120 **- Well, I guess if Dist didn't manage to drive Kratos insane, Lloyd wouldn't have much luck in accomplishing that either XD

**Privatesargent **- Glad you like how the story progresses. It might still be some time till Lloyd and the others meet up (I won't consider it spoiler as I guess you can see the general picture and could guess about when that's going to happen), I hope you are still able to enjoy this story till that happens ^^

_Uploaded on 26 Sep 2013._


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